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Full-Length Practice ACT

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Information about the Optional

Writing Test

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Strategies to Prepare for the Tests

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What to Expect on Test Day

IC 080192050

Preparing for the ACT

What’s Inside:

This booklet is provided

free of charge.

Contents

1. General Preparation for the ACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2. Strategies for Taking the ACT Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3. What to Expect on the Test Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

4. Taking the Practice Tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Practice Multiple-Choice Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Practice Writing Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

5. Scoring Your Practice Tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

How to Score the Multiple-Choice Tests. . . . . . . . . . 59

How to Score the Writing Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

6. Sample Answer Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Multiple-Choice Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Writing Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

A Message to Students

This booklet, which is provided free of charge, is

intended to help you do your best on the ACT. It summarizes

general test-taking strategies, describes the content of each

of the tests, provides specific tips for each, and lets you

know what you can expect on the test day. Included in this

booklet are a complete practice test—“retired” ACT

questions that were administered to students on a national

test date and a writing prompt—sample answer documents,

and scoring instructions.

Read this booklet carefully and take the practice test well

before the test day so you will be familiar with the tests, what

they measure, and the strategies you can use to do your best.

ACT is committed to representing the diversity of our

society in all its aspects, including race, ethnicity, and gen-

der. Thus, test passages, questions, and writing prompts are

deliberately chosen to reflect the range of cultures in our

population.

We also are committed to ensuring that test questions

and writing prompts are fair—that they do not disadvantage

any particular group of examinees. Extensive reviews of the

fairness of test materials are rigorously conducted by both

ACT staff and external consultants. We also employ statisti-

cal procedures to help ensure that our test materials do not

unfairly affect the performance of any group.

Additional ACT Preparation Materials

• ACT Online Prep™: The only online test preparation pro-

gram designed by the ACT test development professionals.

ACT Online Prep has practice test questions, a practice

essay with real-time scoring, a diagnostic test, and person-

alized Study Path. You can access ACT Online Prep via

the Internet anywhere and at any time.

• The

Real ACT Prep Guide

is the official print guide to the

ACT. This book includes three practice ACTs previously

used in actual test administrations—each with an optional

Writing Test, with explanations for all right and wrong

answer choices.

ACT Online Prep, the

Real ACT Prep Guide,

and sam-

ple test booklets are available at www.actstudent.org.

General Preparation

for the ACT

Choosing a Test Option

Students testing in the United States may register for

one of two Test Options: the ACT, or the ACT Plus Writing,

which includes a 30-minute Writing Test for an additional fee.

The ACT Writing Test complements the ACT English Test.

The combined results from both tests provide information

about your understanding of the conventions of standard

written English and your ability to produce a direct sample of

your writing. Taking the ACT Plus Writing will provide you

with two additional scores: a Writing Test subscore and a

Combined English/Writing score. Taking the Writing Test

does not affect your subject area scores or your Composite

score.

Not all institutions require or recommend taking the ACT

Writing Test. Check directly with the institutions you are con-

sidering to find out their requirements, or ask your high

school counselor which Test Option you should take. You

can also check our website (www.actstudent.org) for a list

of institutions that have provided information to us about their

policies—whether they require, recommend, or do not need

results from the ACT Writing Test. Consult ACT’s list before

you register so you will know which Test Option to select.

The ACT Plus Writing is available on national test dates

and for Special and Arranged Testing within the United

States during designated testing windows. This Test Option

is not available through any other type of testing (for exam-

ple, testing outside the U.S.) during 2005–06.

Preparing for the ACT

6431

A copy of the full

Code

may be obtained free of charge from ACT Customer Ser-

vices, P.O. Box 1008, Iowa City, IA 52243-1008, 319/337-1429.

NOTE: This booklet is covered by federal copyright laws that prohibit the

reproduction of the test questions without the express, written permission of

ACT, Inc.

ACT endorses the

Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education,

a statement of

guidelines for those who develop, administer, and use educational tests and data.

The

Code

sets forth criteria for fairness in four areas: developing and selecting

appropriate tests, interpreting test scores, striving for fairness, and informing

test takers. ACT is committed to ensuring that each of its testing programs

upholds the

Code

’s standards for appropriate test development practice and use.

Choosing a Test Date

Before you choose a test date, consider the application

deadlines of the colleges and scholarship agencies that are

of interest to you. It will take four to seven weeks after a test

date for ACT to mail your score report to you and to your col-

lege or agency choices.

Many college and scholarship agencies recommend that

students take the ACT during the spring of their junior year.

By this time, students typically have completed most of the

coursework covered by the ACT. There are a number of

advantages in taking the ACT then:

• You will receive test scores and other information that will

help you plan your senior year in high school.

• Many colleges begin contacting prospective students dur-

ing the summer before the senior year.

• If you do not score as well as you believe you can, there

will be opportunities to retake the ACT in the fall of your

senior year and still have the new information available in

time to meet admission and scholarship deadlines.

NOTE: You cannot plan on receiving your scores from one

national test date in time to register for the next.

General Test-Taking Strategies

for the ACT

The ACT contains multiple-choice tests in four areas:

English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science. Each of these

tests contains questions that offer either four or five answer

choices from which you are to choose the correct, or best,

answer. The following suggestions apply to the tests in all

four areas:

Pace yourself.

The time limits set for each test give nearly everyone

enough time to finish all the questions. However, because

the English, Reading, and Science Tests contain a consider-

able amount of text, it is important to pace yourself so you

will not spend too much time on one passage. Similarly, try

not to spend too much time puzzling over an answer to a

specific problem in the Mathematics Test. Go on to the other

questions and come back if there is time.

Your supervisor will announce when there are five min-

utes remaining on each test.

Read the directions for each test carefully.

Before you begin taking one of the tests, read the direc-

tions carefully. The English, Reading, and Science Tests ask

for the “best” answer. Do not respond as soon as you iden-

tify a correct answer. Read and consider all of the answer

choices and choose the answer that

best

responds to the

question.

The Mathematics Test asks for the “correct” answer.

Read each question carefully to make sure you understand

the type of answer required. Then, you may want to work out

the answer you feel is correct and look for it among the

choices given. If your answer is not among the choices pro-

vided, reread the question and consider all of the answer

choices.

Read each question carefully.

It is important that you understand what each question

asks. Some questions will require you to go through several

steps to find the correct or best answer, while others can be

answered more quickly.

Answer the easy questions first.

The best strategy for taking the tests is to answer the

easy questions and skip the questions you find difficult. After

answering all of the easy questions, go back and answer the

more difficult questions.

Use logic in more difficult questions.

When you return to the more difficult questions, try to

use logic to eliminate incorrect answers to a question. Com-

pare the answer choices to each other and note how they

differ. Such differences may provide clues as to what the

question requires. Eliminate as many incorrect answers as

you can, then make an educated guess from the remaining

answers.

Answer every question.

Your score on the tests will be based on the number of

questions that you answer correctly; there is no penalty for

guessing. Thus, you should answer every question within

the time allowed for each test, even if you have to guess.

The supervisor will announce when there are five minutes

remaining on each test.

Review your work.

If there is time left after you have answered every ques-

tion in a test, go back and check your work in that test. Check

to be sure that you marked only one answer to each ques-

tion. You will not be allowed to go back to any other test or

mark answers to a test after time has been called on that test.

Be precise in marking your answer document.

Be sure that you fill in the correct ovals on your answer

document. Check to be sure that the number of the line of

ovals on your answer document is the same as the number

of the question you are answering and that you mark only

one response for each question.

Erase completely.

If you want to change a multiple-choice answer, be sure

to use a soft eraser that will not leave smudges and erase

the unintended mark completely. Do not cross out answers

or use correction fluid or tape; you must erase. Correction

fluid/tape, smudges, or unintended marks may cause errors

in scoring.

To students approved to test at national test centers

with extended time:

You will have a total of 5 hours, including breaks, to

take the ACT multiple-choice tests (and an additional 45

minutes if taking ACT Plus Writing). Supervisors will

announce when each hour has passed. You will need to

pace yourself through each test in order to complete all

tests within the time allowed. For each test, check your

work before notifying the supervisor that you are ready to

go on to the next test.

General Test-Taking Strategies

for the ACT Writing Test

The ACT Writing Test lets you show your skill in planning

and composing a short essay. It measures writing proficien-

cies that are taught in high school and are important for readi-

ness to succeed in entry-level college composition courses.

The following general strategies will help if you take the

ACT Writing Test.

Pace yourself.

You will have 30 minutes to write an essay for the ACT

Writing Test. It is important to pace yourself in the way that

best suits your personal writing strategy. Many writers do

best when they spend part of their time planning their essay,

most of their time writing the essay, and the last part of their

time reviewing the essay to make corrections and small revi-

sions. There is no formula for the best proportion of time to

spend planning, writing, and reviewing: writers, topics, and

occasions differ too widely for a universal rule to apply. Keep

in mind, however, that you are unlikely to have time to draft,

revise, and recopy your essay. Therefore, taking a few min-

utes to plan your essay is a much better strategy than writing

a first draft with the intent to copy it over for the final essay.

In general, budget your time in the way that feels best to

you based on your experience in taking essay tests in school

and in other circumstances when you’ve done writing within

a time limit. Your test supervisor will announce when there

are five minutes remaining on the Writing Test.

Read the directions carefully.

Before you begin taking the Writing Test, read the direc-

tions carefully. They tell you the aspects of writing on which

your essay will be evaluated and give instructions on how to

write in the answer folder.

Read the writing prompt carefully.

It is important that you understand exactly what the writ-

ing prompt asks you to do. A firm grasp of the assignment is

as crucial for the Writing Test as it is for writing essays for

class. Be sure you have a clear understanding of the issue in

the writing prompt and of the question you must respond to

before you start to plan and write your essay.

Write (or print) legibly in the answer folder.

If your readers cannot make out what you have written,

they cannot appreciate what you have said, and they will not

be able to score your essay. You may write or print your

essay, whichever you prefer—but you must do so clearly.

You must write your essay using a soft lead No. 2 pencil

(not a mechanical pencil) and on the lined pages in the

answer folder. You may not need all the lined pages, but to

ensure you have enough room to finish, do not skip lines.

Make corrections clear.

If you make corrections by using erasures or cross-outs,

do so thoroughly. You may write corrections or additions

neatly between the lines of your essay, but do not write in

the margins of the lined pages.

Preparing for the Test Day

Although what you know will determine how well you do

on the ACT, your attitudes, emotions, and physical state may

also influence your performance. The following tips will help

you do your best:

• Be confident in your ability to do well on the ACT. You can

do well!

• Be prepared to work hard.

• Know what to expect on the test day. Familiarize yourself

with the information in this booklet, in the registration book-

let, and on ACT’s website. NOTE: Most procedures in this

booklet refer to testing on a national test date. Procedures

may differ slightly if you test outside the United States or

through another type of testing. For example, if you test at

a national test center, you won’t need scratch paper

because each page of the Mathematics Test will provide a

blank column that you can use for scratch work. Otherwise,

you will be provided with scratch paper.

• Take the practice tests and review your responses so you

will feel comfortable about the approaching test day.

• Prepare well in advance for the tests. Do not leave prepa-

ration to the last minute.

• Get plenty of rest the night before the tests so you will be in

good physical condition for taking them.

• Bring the following items with you to the test center:

1. Your test center admission ticket (if you are testing on

a national test date).

2. Acceptable identification. Your admission ticket is not

identification. See details on the back of your admission

ticket or on our website. If you do not present acceptable

identification at the time of check-in, you will not be admit-

ted to test (you will then have to pay a test date change

fee to transfer your registration to a different test date.). If

you have any questions about acceptable ID, call ACT

Test Administration (319/337-1510)

before

the test day.

3. Sharpened soft lead No. 2 pencils with good erasers

(no mechanical pencils; no ink, ballpoint, or felt-tip pens).

Do not bring highlight pens or any other writing instru-

ments; you will not be allowed to use them. If you have

registered to take the ACT Writing Test, your essay must

also be completed in pencil.

4. A watch so that you can pace yourself during the test.

Do not bring a watch that has an alarm function. You will

not be allowed to set an alarm because it will disturb

other students. An announcement will be made by the

supervisor when five minutes remain on each test.

5. A permitted calculator for use on the Mathematics Test,

if you wish to use one. (See shaded section on page 5.)

For students testing on national test dates:

• Look for your admission ticket about 2 weeks after we

receive your registration (sooner if you register online or

re-register by phone).

• If you misplace your admission ticket or have not received

it by ten days before the test, call ACT Registration at

319/337-1270 for assistance.

• Check your admission ticket for your Test Option and the

location of the test center to which you have been

assigned. If you are unfamiliar with the location, do a prac-

tice run to see how to get there and how much time you

will need to arrive on time.

• Plan to arrive by the time stated on your admission ticket. If

you arrive earlier than 7:45

A.M., you will probably have to

wait outside until the testing personnel have completed

their arrangements.

• Be prepared for testing to start after all examinees present

at 8:00

A.M. have been checked in and assigned seats.

• Dress comfortably. To conserve energy, your test center

may be considerably warmer or cooler on weekends than

during the week. Please dress in such a way that you will

be comfortable in a variety of temperatures.

Strategies for Taking the

ACT Tests

The ACT measures the knowledge, understanding, and

skills that you have acquired throughout your education.

Although the sum total of what a person has learned cannot

easily be changed, your performance in a specific area can

be affected by adequate preparation, especially if it has been

some time since you have taken a course in that area.

There are three strategies that can help you to prepare

yourself for the content included in the ACT:

Familiarize yourself with the content of the ACT tests.

Review the information about the tests that is provided

on the following pages. Note which content areas make up a

large proportion of the tests and which do not. The specific

topics included in each content area are examples of possi-

ble topics; they do not include all of the possibilities.

Refresh your knowledge and skills in the content areas.

Review those content areas you have studied but do not

have freshly in your mind. Spend your time refreshing your

knowledge and skills in the content areas that make up large

portions of the tests.

Use of Calculators on the ACT Mathematics Test

We regularly update information about which cal-

culators are prohibited. To be certain your calculator

will be permitted on test day, visit www.actstudent.org

or call 800/498-6481 for a recorded message.

You may use a calculator on the ACT Mathematics

Test (but not on any of the other tests in the ACT). You

are not required to use a calculator. All the problems

can be solved without a calculator. If you regularly use a

calculator in your math work, you may wish to use one

you are familiar with as you take the Mathematics Test.

Using a more powerful, but unfamiliar, calculator is not

likely to give you an advantage over using the kind you

normally use.

You may use any four-function, scientific, or graph-

ing calculator, unless it has features described in the

Prohibited list. For models on the Permitted with Modi-

fication list, you will be required to modify some of the

calculator’s features.

Prohibited Calculators

The following types of calculators are prohibited:

• pocket organizers

• handheld or laptop computers

• electronic writing pads or pen-input devices—The

Sharp EL 9600 is permitted.

• calculators built into cellular phones or other electronic

communication devices

• calculators with a typewriter keypad (keys in QWERTY

format)—

Calculators with letter keys not in QWERTY

format are permitted.

• calculators with built-in computer algebra systems—

Prohibited calculators in this category include:

– Casio: Algebra fx 2.0, ClassPad 300, and all model

numbers that begin with CFX-9970G

– Texas Instruments: All model numbers that begin

with TI-89 or TI-92

– Hewlett-Packard: hp 48GII and all model numbers

that begin with hp 40G or hp 49G

Calculators Permitted with Modification

The following types of calculators are permitted,

but only after they are modified as noted:

• calculators with paper tape—

Remove the tape.

• calculators that make noise—

Turn off the sound.

• calculators that can communicate wirelessly with other

calculators—

Completely cover the infrared data port

with heavy opaque material, such as duct tape or elec-

trician’s tape.

• calculators that have power cords

—Remove all power/

electrical cords.

On the Test Day

Be sure your calculator is working and has reliable

batteries. You may bring a spare calculator and extra

batteries to the test center. Testing staff will not supply

batteries or calculators. You will not be allowed to share

calculators during testing.

Testing staff will check your calculator to verify it is a

permitted type, and they will monitor your use of your

calculator to ensure that you:

• use it only during the Mathematics Test;

• use your backup calculator only if your primary calcu-

lator fails;

• do not share your calculator; and

• do not store test materials in your calculator’s memory.

If your calculator has characters one inch high or

larger, or a raised display, testing staff may seat you

where no other test taker can see your calculator.

Identify the content areas you have not studied.

If unfamiliar content areas make up major portions of

the tests, consider taking coursework to help you gain knowl-

edge and skills in these areas before you take the ACT.

Because the ACT measures knowledge and skills acquired

over a period of time, it is unlikely that a “cram” course cov-

ering material that is unfamiliar to you will help you improve

your scores. Longer-term survey courses will be most helpful

to you, because they aim to improve your knowledge

through sustained learning and practice.

ACT English Test

The English Test is a 75-question, 45-minute test that

measures your understanding of the conventions of standard

written English (punctuation, grammar and usage, and sen-

tence structure) and of rhetorical skills (strategy, organiza-

tion, and style). Spelling, vocabulary, and rote recall of rules

of grammar are not tested. The test consists of five essays,

or passages, each of which is accompanied by a sequence

of multiple-choice test questions. Different passage types are

employed to provide a variety of rhetorical situations. Pas-

sages are chosen not only for their appropriateness in

assessing writing skills but also to reflect students’ interests

and experiences.

Some questions refer to underlined portions of the pas-

sage and offer several alternatives to the portion underlined.

You must decide which choice is most appropriate in the

context of the passage. Some questions ask about an under-

lined portion, a section of the passage, or the passage as a

whole. You must decide which choice best answers the

question posed. Many questions offer “NO CHANGE” to

the passage as one of the choices. The questions are

numbered consecutively. Each question number refers to a

correspondingly numbered portion underlined in the passage

or to a corresponding numeral in a box located at the appro-

priate point in the passage.

Three scores are reported for the ACT English Test: a

total test score based on all 75 questions, a subscore in

Usage/Mechanics based on 40 questions, and a subscore in

Rhetorical Skills based on 35 questions.

Tips for Taking the ACT English Test

Pace yourself.

The ACT English Test contains 75 questions to be com-

pleted in 45 minutes. If you spend 1

⁄2 minutes skimming

through each passage before responding to the questions,

then you will have 30 seconds to answer each question. If

possible, spend less time on each question and use the

remaining time allowed for this test to review your work and

return to the questions that were most difficult for you.

Be aware of the writing style used in each passage.

The five passages cover a variety of topics and are writ-

ten in a variety of styles. It is important that you take into

account the writing style used in each passage when you

respond to the questions. In responding to a question, be

sure to understand the context of the question. Consider

how the sentence containing an underlined portion fits in

with the surrounding sentences and into the passage as a

whole.

Examine the underlined portions of the passage.

Before responding to a question with an underlined por-

tion, carefully examine what is underlined in the text. Con-

sider the elements of writing that are included in each

underlined portion. Some questions will ask you to base your

decision on some specific element of writing, such as the

tone or emphasis the text should convey. Some questions

will ask you to choose the alternative to the underlined por-

tion that is NOT or LEAST acceptable. The answer choices

for each question will contain changes in one or more of

those elements of writing.

Be aware of questions with no underlined portions.

You will be asked some questions about a section of the

passage or about the passage as a whole, in light of a given

rhetorical situation. Questions of this type are often identified

by a question number in a box located at the appropriate

point in the passage. Questions asking global questions

about the entire passage are placed at the end of the pas-

sage and introduced by a horizontal box enclosing the

following instruction: “Questions ___ and ___ ask about the

preceding passage as a whole.”

Note the differences in the answer choices.

Many of the questions in the test will involve more than

one aspect of writing. Examine each answer choice and how

it differs from the others. Be careful not to select an answer

that corrects one error but causes a different error.

Determine the best answer.

Two approaches can be taken to determine the best

answer to a question in which you are to choose the best

alternative to an underlined portion. In the first approach, you

can reread the sentence or sentences, substituting each of

the possible answer choices for the underlined portion to

determine the best choice. In the second approach, you can

decide how the underlined portion might best be phrased in

standard written English or in terms of the particular question

posed. If you think the underlined portion is the best answer,

you should select “NO CHANGE.” If not, you should check to

see whether your phrasing is one of the other answer

choices. If you do not find your phrasing, you should choose

the best of the answers presented. For questions cued by a

number in a box, you must decide which choice is most

appropriate in terms of the question posed or the stated

rhetorical situation.

Reread the sentence, using your selected answer.

Once you have selected the answer you feel is best,

reread the corresponding sentence(s) of the passage, insert-

ing your selected answer at the appropriate place in the text

to make sure it is the best answer within the context of the

passage.

Content Covered by the ACT English Test

Six elements of effective writing are included in the Eng-

lish Test: punctuation, grammar and usage, sentence struc-

ture, strategy, organization, and style. The questions

covering punctuation, grammar and usage, and sentence

structure make up the Usage/Mechanics subscore. The

questions covering strategy, organization, and style make up

the Rhetorical Skills subscore. A brief description and the

approximate percentage of the test devoted to each element

of effective writing are given below.

Usage/Mechanics

Punctuation (13%).

Questions in this category test your

knowledge of the conventions of internal and end-of-

sentence punctuation, with emphasis on the relationship of

punctuation to meaning (for example, avoiding ambiguity,

indicating appositives).

Grammar and Usage (16%).

Questions in this category test

your understanding of agreement between subject and verb,

between pronoun and antecedent, and between modifiers

and the word modified; verb formation; pronoun case; forma-

tion of comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs;

and idiomatic usage.

Sentence Structure (24%)

. Questions in this category

test your understanding of relationships between and among

clauses, placement of modifiers, and shifts in construction.

Rhetorical Skills

Strategy (16%).

Questions in this category test how well you

develop a given topic by choosing expressions appropriate

to an essay’s audience and purpose; judging the effect of

adding, revising, or deleting supporting material; and choos-

ing effective opening, transitional, and closing sentences.

Organization (15%).

Questions in this category test how well

you organize ideas and judge the relevance of statements in

context (making decisions about order, coherence, and

unity).

Style (16%).

Questions in this category test how well you

choose precise and appropriate words and images, maintain

the level of style and tone in an essay, manage sentence

elements for rhetorical effectiveness, and avoid ambiguous

pronoun references, wordiness, and redundancy.

ACT Mathematics Test

The ACT Mathematics Test is a 60-question,

60-minute test designed to assess the mathematical skills

students have typically acquired in courses taken up to the

beginning of grade 12. The test presents multiple-choice

questions that require you to use reasoning skills to solve

practical problems in mathematics. Most questions are dis-

crete, but on occasion some may belong to sets of several

questions (e.g., several questions based on the same graph

or chart). Knowledge of basic formulas and computational

skills are assumed as background for the problems, but

complex formulas and extensive computation are not

required. The material covered on the test emphasizes the

major content areas that are prerequisites to successful per-

formance in entry-level courses in college mathematics.

Use of calculators is permitted on the Mathematics

Test. See page 5 for details.

Four scores are reported for the ACT Mathematics Test:

a total test score based on all 60 questions, a subscore in

Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra based on 24 questions, a

subscore in Intermediate Algebra/Coordinate Geometry

based on 18 questions, and a subscore in Plane Geometry/

Trigonometry based on 18 questions.

Tips for Taking the ACT Mathematics Test

Pace yourself.

The ACT Mathematics Test contains 60 questions to be

completed in 60 minutes. The maximum estimated time that

should be spent on each question is 1 minute. If possible,

spend less time on each question and use the remaining

time allowed for this test to review your work and return to

the questions on this test that were most difficult for you.

If you use a calculator, use it wisely.

Remember, all of the mathematics problems can be

solved without using a calculator. In fact, some of the prob-

lems are best done without a calculator. Use good judgment

in deciding when, and when not, to use a calculator. For

example, for some problems you may wish to do scratch

work to clarify your thoughts on the question before you

begin using a calculator to do computations. For many prob-

lems, you may not want to use a calculator.

Solve the problem.

For working out the solutions to the problems, writing

space for scratch work usually is available in the test booklet,

or you will be given scratch paper to use. You may wish to

glance over the answer choices after reading the questions.

However, working backwards from the answer choices pro-

vided can take a lot of time and may not be effective.

Locate your solution among the answer choices.

Once you have solved the problem, look for your

answer among the choices. If your answer is not included

among the choices, carefully reread the problem to see

whether you missed important information. Pay careful atten-

tion to the question being asked. If an equation is

to be selected, check to see whether the equation you think

is best can be transformed into one of the answer choices

provided.

Make sure you answer the question.

The solutions to many questions in the test will involve

several steps. Make sure your answer includes all of the

necessary steps. Frequently, questions include answer

choices that are based on incomplete solutions.

Make sure your answer is reasonable.

Sometimes an error in computation will result in an

answer that is not practically possible for the situation

described. Always think about your answer to determine

whether it is reasonable.

Check your work.

You may arrive at an incorrect solution by making com-

mon errors in the problem-solving process. Thus, if there is

time available before the end of the Mathematics Test, it is

important that you reread the questions and check your

answers to make sure they are correct.

Content Covered by the ACT Mathematics Test

Six content areas are included in the Mathematics Test:

pre-algebra, elementary algebra, intermediate algebra, coor-

dinate geometry, plane geometry, and trigonometry. The

questions covering pre-algebra and elementary algebra

make up the Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra subscore. The

questions covering intermediate algebra and coordinate

geometry make up the Intermediate Algebra/Coordinate

Geometry subscore. And the Plane Geometry/Trigonometry

subscore is based on the questions covering plane geometry

and trigonometry. A brief description and the approximate

percentage of the test devoted to each content area are

given below.

Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra

Pre-Algebra (23%).

Questions in this content area are

based on basic operations using whole numbers, decimals,

fractions, and integers; place value; square roots and

approximations; the concept of exponents; scientific nota-

tion; factors; ratio, proportion, and percent; linear equations

in one variable; absolute value and ordering numbers by

value; elementary counting techniques and simple proba-

bility; data collection, representation, and interpretation;

and understanding simple descriptive statistics.

Elementary Algebra (17%).

Questions in this content area

are based on properties of exponents and square roots,

evaluation of algebraic expressions through substitution,

using variables to express functional relationships, under-

standing algebraic operations, and the solution of quadratic

equations by factoring.

Intermediate Algebra/Coordinate Geometry

Intermediate Algebra (15%).

Questions in this content area

are based on an understanding of the quadratic formula,

rational and radical expressions, absolute value equations

and inequalities, sequences and patterns, systems of equa-

tions, quadratic inequalities, functions, modeling, matrices,

roots of polynomials, and complex numbers.

Coordinate Geometry (15%).

Questions in this content area

are based on graphing and the relations between equations

and graphs, including points, lines, polynomials, circles, and

other curves; graphing inequalities; slope; parallel and per-

pendicular lines; distance; midpoints; and conics.

Plane Geometry/Trigonometry

Plane Geometry (23%).

Questions in this content area are

based on the properties and relations of plane figures,

including angles and relations among perpendicular and

parallel lines; properties of circles, triangles, rectangles, par-

allelograms, and trapezoids; transformations; the concept

of proof and proof techniques; volume; and applications of

geometry to three dimensions.

Trigonometry (7%).

Questions in this content area are based

on understanding trigonometric relations in right triangles;

values and properties of trigonometric functions; graphing

trigonometric functions; modeling using trigonometric

functions; use of trigonometric identities; and solving trigono-

metric equations.

ACT Reading Test

The Reading Test is a 40-question, 35-minute test that

measures your reading comprehension. The test questions

ask you to derive meaning from several texts by (1) referring

to what is explicitly stated and (2) reasoning to determine

implicit meanings. Specifically, questions will ask you to use

referring and reasoning skills to determine main ideas; locate

and interpret significant details; understand sequences of

events; make comparisons; comprehend cause-effect rela-

tionships; determine the meaning of context-dependent

words, phrases, and statements; draw generalizations; and

analyze the author’s or narrator’s voice and method. The test

comprises four prose passages that are representative of the

level and kinds of text commonly encountered in college

freshman curricula. Each passage is preceded by a heading

that identifies what type of passage it is (for example, “Prose

Fiction”), names the author, and may include a brief note that

helps in understanding the passage. Each passage is

accompanied by a set of multiple-choice test questions.

These questions do not test the rote recall of facts from out-

side the passage, isolated vocabulary items, or rules of for-

mal logic.

Three scores are reported for the ACT Reading Test: a

total test score based on all 40 questions, a subscore in

Social Studies/Sciences reading skills (based on the

20 questions in the social studies and natural sciences

sections of the test), and a subscore in Arts/Literature read-

ing skills (based on the 20 questions in the prose fiction and

humanities sections of the test).

Tips for Taking the ACT Reading Test

Pace yourself.

The ACT Reading Test contains 40 questions to be

completed in 35 minutes. If you spend 2–3 minutes reading

each passage, then you will have about 35 seconds to

answer each question. If possible, spend less time on the

passages and the questions and use the remaining time

allowed for this test to review your work and return to the

questions on this test that were most difficult for you.

Read the passage carefully.

Before you begin answering a question, read the entire

passage thoroughly. It is important that you read every sen-

tence rather than skim the text. Be conscious of relationships

between or among ideas. You may want to make notes

about important ideas in the passage either in the test

booklet or on the scratch paper provided.

Refer to the passage when answering the questions.

Answers to some of the questions will be found by refer-

ring to what is explicitly stated in the text. Other questions

will require you to determine implicit meanings and to draw

conclusions, comparisons, and generalizations. Refer to the

passage before you answer any question.

Content Covered by the ACT Reading Test

The Reading Test is based on four types of reading

selections: the social studies, the natural sciences, prose

fiction, and the humanities. A subscore in Social Studies/

Sciences reading skills is based on the questions in the

social studies and the natural sciences sections of the test,

and a subscore in Arts/Literature reading skills is based on

the questions in the prose fiction and humanities sections of

the test. A brief description and the approximate percentage

of the test devoted to each type of reading selection are

given below.

Social Studies (25%).

Questions in this category are based

on passages in the content areas of anthropology, archaeol-

ogy, biography, business, economics, education, geography,

history, political science, psychology, and sociology.

Natural Sciences (25%).

Questions in this category are

based on passages in the content areas of anatomy, astron-

omy, biology, botany, chemistry, ecology, geology, medicine,

meteorology, microbiology, natural history, physiology,

physics, technology, and zoology.

Prose Fiction (25%).

Questions in this category are based on

intact short stories or excerpts from short stories or novels.

Humanities (25%).

Questions in this category are based on

passages from memoirs and personal essays and in the

content areas of architecture, art, dance, ethics, film, lan-

guage, literary criticism, music, philosophy, radio, television,

and theater.

ACT Science Test

The Science Test is a 40-question, 35-minute test that

measures the interpretation, analysis, evaluation, reasoning,

and problem-solving skills required in the natural sciences.

The test presents seven sets of scientific information,

each followed by a number of multiple-choice test questions.

The scientific information is conveyed in one of three differ-

ent formats: data representation (graphs, tables, and other

schematic forms), research summaries (descriptions of

several related experiments), or conflicting viewpoints

(expressions of several related hypotheses or views that are

inconsistent with one another). The questions require you to

recognize and understand the basic features of, and con-

cepts related to, the provided information; to examine

critically the relationship between the information provided

and the conclusions drawn or hypotheses developed; and to

generalize from given information to gain new information,

draw conclusions, or make predictions. The use of calcula-

tors is not permitted on the Science Test.

One score is reported for the ACT Science Test: a total

test score based on all 40 questions.

Tips for Taking the ACT Science Test

Pace yourself.

The ACT Science Test contains 40 questions to be

completed in 35 minutes. If you spend about 2 minutes read-

ing each passage, then you will have about 30 seconds to

answer each question. If possible, spend less time on the

passages and the questions and use the remaining time

allowed for this test to review your work and return to the

questions on this test that were most difficult for you.

Read the passage carefully.

Before you begin answering a question, read the scien-

tific material provided. It is important that you read the entire

text and examine any tables, graphs, or figures. You may

want to make notes about important ideas in the information

provided, either in the test booklet or on the scratch paper

provided. Some of the information sets will describe experi-

ments. You should consider the experimental design,

including the controls and variables, because questions are

likely to address this component of scientific research.

Note different viewpoints in passages.

Some material will present conflicting points of view,

and the questions will ask you to distinguish among the

various viewpoints. It may be helpful for you to make notes

summarizing each viewpoint, either next to that section in

your test booklet (or if you are testing outside the U.S., on

the scratch paper provided). For questions that ask you to

compare viewpoints, these notes will help you answer more

quickly.

Content Covered by the ACT Science Test

The content of the Science Test includes biology, chem-

istry, physics, and the Earth/space sciences (for example,

geology, astronomy, and meteorology). Advanced knowl-

edge in these subjects is not required, but knowledge

acquired in general, introductory science courses is needed

to answer some of the questions. The test emphasizes sci-

entific reasoning skills over recall of scientific content, skill in

mathematics, or reading ability. The scientific information is

conveyed in one of three different formats.

Data Representation (38%).

This format presents graphic

and tabular material similar to that found in science journals

and texts. The questions associated with this format mea-

sure skills such as graph reading, interpretation of scatter-

plots, and interpretation of information presented in tables.

Research Summaries (45%).

This format provides descrip-

tions of one or more related experiments. The questions

focus upon the design of experiments and the interpretation

of experimental results.

Conflicting Viewpoints (17%).

This format presents expres-

sions of several hypotheses or views that, being based on

differing premises or on incomplete data, are inconsistent

with one another. The questions focus upon the understand-

ing, analysis, and comparison of alternative viewpoints or

hypotheses.

ACT Writing Test (Optional)

If you register for the ACT Plus Writing, you will take the

ACT Writing Test (which must be completed in English) after

you complete the four multiple-choice tests. Taking the Writ-

ing Test will not affect your scores on the multiple-choice

tests or the Composite score for those tests. Rather, you will

receive two additional scores: a Combined English/Writing

score on a scale of 1 through 36 and a Writing subscore on

a scale of 2 through 12. You will also receive some com-

ments on your essay. And your essay will be available to

your high school and the colleges to which we report your

scores from that test date.

The Writing Test is a 30-minute essay test that mea-

sures your writing skills—specifically those writing skills

emphasized in high school English classes and in entry-level

college composition courses. The test consists of one writing

prompt that will define an issue and describe two points of

view on that issue. You are asked to write in response to a

question about your position on the issue described in the

writing prompt. In doing so, you may adopt one or the other

of the perspectives described in the prompt, or you may pre-

sent a different point of view on the issue. Your essay score

will not be affected by the point of view you take on the

issue. Prompts are designed to be appropriate for response

in a 30-minute timed test and to reflect students’ interests

and experiences.

Your essay will be evaluated on the evidence it gives of

your ability to do the following:

• express judgments by taking a position on the issue in the

writing prompt;

• maintain a focus on the topic throughout the essay;

• develop a position by using logical reasoning and by sup-

porting your ideas;

• organize ideas in a logical way; and

• use language clearly and effectively according to the con-

ventions of standard written English.

Your essay will be scored holistically—that is, on the

basis of the overall impression created by all the elements of

the writing. Two trained readers will read your essay, each

giving it a rating from 1 (low) to 6 (high). The sum of those

ratings is your Writing subscore. If the readers’ ratings dis-

agree by more than one point, a third reader will evaluate

your essay and resolve the discrepancy.

Tips for Taking the ACT Writing Test

Pace yourself.

The ACT Writing Test gives you 30 minutes to read and

think about the issue in the prompt, and to plan and write

your essay. When asked to write a timed essay, most writers

find it useful to do some planning before they write the

essay, and to do a final check of the essay when it is fin-

ished. It is unlikely that you will have time to draft, revise,

and recopy your essay. Therefore, taking a few minutes to

plan your essay is a much better strategy than writing a first

draft with the intent to copy it over for the final essay.

Prewrite.

Some writers like to plunge right in, but this is seldom a

good way to do well on a timed essay. Prewriting gets you

acquainted with the issue, suggests patterns for presenting

your thoughts, and gives you a little breathing room to come

up with interesting ideas for introducing and concluding your

essay. Before writing, then, carefully consider the prompt

and make sure you understand it—reread it if you aren’t

sure. Decide how you want to answer the question in the

prompt. Then jot down your ideas on the topic: this might

simply be a list of ideas, reasons, and examples that you will

use to explain your point of view on the issue. Write down

what you think others might say in opposition to your point of

view and think about how you would refute their argument.

Think of how best to organize the ideas in your essay. You

will be instructed to do your prewriting in your Writing Test

booklet. You can refer back to these notes as you write the

essay itself on the lined pages in your answer folder.

Write.

Once you’re ready to write your essay in the answer

folder, proceed with the confidence that you have prepared

well and that you will have attentive and receptive readers

who are interested in your ideas. At the beginning of your

essay, make sure readers will see that you understand the

issue. Explain your point of view in a clear and logical way. If

possible, discuss the issue in a broader context or evaluate

the implications or complications of the issue. Address what

others might say to refute your point of view and present a

counterargument. Use specific examples. Vary the structure

of your sentences, and use varied and precise word choices.

Make logical relationships clear by using transitional words

and phrases. Do not wander off the topic. End with a strong

conclusion that summarizes or reinforces your position.

Is it advisable to organize the essay by using a formula,

like “the five-paragraph essay”? Points are neither awarded

nor deducted for following familiar formulas, so feel free to

use one or not as best suits your preference. Some writers

find formulas stifling, other writers find them vital, and still

other writers just keep them handy in the toolbox to use

when needed. The exact numbers of words and paragraphs

in your essay are less important than the clarity and develop-

ment of your ideas. Writers who have something to say usu-

ally find that their ideas have a way of sorting themselves out

at reasonable length and in the right number of paragraphs.

Review your essay.

Take a few minutes before the end of the testing session

to read over your essay. Correct any mistakes in grammar,

usage, punctuation, and spelling. If you find any words that

are hard to read, recopy them so your readers can read

them easily. Make any corrections and revisions neatly,

between the lines (but not in the margins). Your readers take

into account that you had merely 30 minutes to compose

and write your essay. Within that time limit, try to make your

essay as polished as you can.

Practice.

There are many ways to prepare for the ACT Writing

Test. You may be surprised that these include reading news-

papers and magazines, listening to news analyses on televi-

sion or radio, and participating in discussions and debates

about issues and problems. These activities help you

become more familiar with current issues, with different per-

spectives on those issues, and with strategies that skilled

writers and speakers use to present their points of view.

Of course, one of the best ways to prepare for the ACT

Writing Test is to practice writing. Practice writing different

kinds of texts, for different purposes, with different audiences

in mind. The writing you do in your English classes will help

you. So will practice in writing essays, stories, poems, plays,

editorials, reports, letters to the editor, a personal journal, or

other kinds of writing that you do on your own. Because the

ACT Writing Test asks you to explain your perspective on an

issue in a convincing way, writing opportunities like editorials

or letters to the editor of a newspaper are especially helpful.

Practicing a variety of different kinds of writing will help make

you a versatile writer able to adjust to different writing occa-

sions and assignments.

It is also a good idea to get some practice writing within

a time limit. This will help build skills that are important in

college-level learning and in the world of work. Taking the

practice ACT Writing Test in this booklet will give you a good

idea of what timed writing is like and how much additional

practice you may need. You might want to take the practice

ACT Writing Test even if you do not plan to register for it,

because all the writing you do contributes to your skill in

expressing yourself.

Content Covered by the ACT Writing Test

Writing is where form and content come together. To

state that more accurately, writing is where

you

put form and

content together. On the ACT Writing Test, we provide the

“prompt”—an issue that has been chosen for its appropriate-

ness in a 30-minute test and for its relevance to students’

interests and experiences. The prompt defines the topic and

sets you the task of focusing on that topic in your essay. But

the “content”—the arguments and explanations, the analysis

and examples, in all their details—is provided by you. By

applying your writing skills to shaping that content, you also

provide the “form” of your essay. So, with regard to the con-

tent covered by the Writing Test, you are the author.

What to Expect on the

Test Day

Identification Required

You are to report to the test center by the time stated on

your admission ticket, normally 8:00

A.M. If your admission

ticket does not list a specific room, test center staff or posted

signs will direct you to the testing room. At check-in, you

will be required to show

BOTH

your admission ticket

and acceptable ID. See ID requirements on the back of

your admission ticket, at www.actstudent.org, or in

Regis-

tering for the ACT.

Dos and Don’ts

In the testing room, the supervisor or proctor will direct

you to a seat. If you need a left-handed desk, tell your super-

visor as you enter. Do not leave the testing room after you

have been admitted. Only pencils, erasers, a calculator (for

the Mathematics Test only), and your admission ticket will be

allowed on your desk. You will be required to put all other

personal belongings away. You will not be allowed to have

scratch paper (unless provided by the test supervisor for cer-

tain types of testing), books, dictionaries, notes or other aids,

highlighters, colored pens or pencils, correction fluid, reading

material, or any electronic devices other than permitted

calculators (examples include pager, timer, beeper, cell

phone, CD/tape player, PDA, headphones, camera). You

may not eat, use tobacco in any form, or have food or drink

(including water) in the testing room. You must abide by the

rules of the institution where you are testing.

Try to relax just before the tests. Take a few deep

breaths, tense and relax your muscles, and think about

pleasant things.

Test Preliminaries

The testing session will begin as soon as all examinees

present at 8:00

A.M. are checked in and assigned to the cor-

rect room for their Test Option. Listen carefully to all direc-

tions read by the supervisor. Ask questions if you do not

understand what you are to do. It is very important that you

follow all directions

carefully. For instance, if you do not copy

the matching information from your admission ticket onto

your answer document accurately, or fill in the correct ovals,

your answer document will not match your registration

record—and the reporting of your scores will take three to

five weeks longer than usual to process.

You will receive a different answer document depending

on which Test Option you have registered to take. Make sure

the answer document you receive matches the Test Option

you intend to take.

After you have completed page 1 of the answer docu-

ment, you will receive a test booklet. You will be told to read

the directions printed on the cover, then asked to write the

booklet number and test form at the top of page 2 of the

answer document. It is extremely important that you fill in the

correct ovals for your test booklet number and for the test

form you are taking because these determine which answer

key will be used to score your answer document. The super-

visor will then tell you when to open your test booklet and

begin work. If you are taking the ACT Plus Writing, you will

receive a Writing Test booklet only after you have completed

the four multiple-choice tests.

Taking the Tests

As you are working, keep your eyes on your own test

booklet and answer document. If you have a question, raise

your hand, but do not look around. Please remember that as

you take the tests you may not use information or materials

that cause you to obtain a test score that misrepresents what

you have learned.

It is important that you understand what is considered

prohibited behavior on the ACT Assessment. If you are

involved in any of the actions listed below, you will have to

return your test materials and leave the test center. Prohib-

ited behaviors include:

• attempting to fill in or alter any ovals or continuing to write

the essay after time is called on each test (You must put

down your pencil when time is called.)

• looking at another examinee’s test booklet or answer

document

• giving or receiving assistance

• looking back at a test on which time has been called

• looking ahead in the test booklet

• using highlight pens, colored pens or pencils, notes, dictio-

naries, or other aids

• using an unauthorized calculator

• using any device to share or exchange information at any

time during the tests or during break (all electronic devices,

including cell phones and pagers, must be turned off from

the time you are admitted to test until you are dismissed

after testing concludes)

• using a calculator on any test other than the Mathematics Test

• attempting to remove test materials, including questions or

answers, from the testing room by any means

• not following instructions or abiding by the rules of the test

center

• exhibiting confrontational, threatening, or unruly behavior

• creating a disturbance or allowing an alarm, pager, or

phone to sound in the testing room

All of the above activities are prohibited. If you engage

in any prohibited behavior, your answer document will not

be scored and you will be dismissed from the test center.

If you finish before time is called, review your work on

the test you have just finished. Do not return to an earlier

test and do not work ahead. If you are satisfied with your

responses, place your answer document inside your test

booklet and close the cover. Sit quietly until the supervisor

gives you additional instructions.

You will have a short break after the first two tests. Do

not leave the building during the break period because some

buildings have automatic locking doors, and you may be

locked out. You must ask permission to leave the room dur-

ing testing to go to the rest room; you will not be given time

to make up for the time you miss. If you are taking the Writ-

ing Test, you will also have a brief break after Test 4 in which

to relax and to sharpen your pencils.

On certain test dates, ACT administers test questions

for developmental purposes. Responses to such questions

are not counted toward your scores.

At the conclusion of the session, you will be asked to

read and sign a statement certifying truthful identification of

yourself. You will be required to sit quietly until you are dis-

missed. After all answer documents and test booklets have

been collected and counted, the supervisor will dismiss you.

Special Situations

If, for any reason, you have to leave the center before

finishing the ACT, you must decide whether or not you want

your answer document scored and inform the supervisor of

your decision. If you fail to do so, your answer document will

be scored. Or, if you decide

after

you have finished the ACT

that you do not want it scored, tell the supervisor

before

you

leave the test center. You need not give a reason.

Once you break the seal on your multiple-choice test

booklet, you cannot later request a test date change. If you

want to take the ACT again, you will have to reregister. See

www.actstudent.org or

Registering for the ACT

. Once you

begin filling out your answer document, you cannot request a

different Test Option on that test day (i.e., you may not

change from ACT Plus Writing to the ACT or the reverse).

Test Information Release

On certain national test dates, you may obtain (for an

additional fee) a copy of the test questions, a copy of your

answers, a list of correct answers, and scoring instructions.

This service is not available for all dates or for other types of

testing, so if you want it, be sure to check our website or the

registration booklet,

Registering for the ACT,

and register for

a test date on which it is available. (Your request must be

postmarked no later than three months after the test date.)

The information will be mailed 6 to 8 weeks after the test

date.

Taking the Practice Tests

Taking the practice tests can help you become familiar

with the ACT. It will be most helpful if you take the tests

under conditions that are as similar as possible to those you

will experience on the actual test day. The following tips will

help you make the most of the practice tests:

• The four multiple-choice tests require a total of 2 hours and

55 minutes. Try to take them in one sitting, with only a

short break between Tests 2 and 3. (If you are taking the

Writing Test, you may also take a short break after Test 4.)

• Sit at a desk with good lighting. You will need sharpened

No. 2 pencils with good erasers. You may not use highlight

pens or correction fluid. Remove all books and other aids

from your desk. On the test day, you will not be allowed to

use references or notes. If you test at a national test cen-

ter, you won’t need scratch paper because each page of

the Mathematics Test has a blank column that you can use

for scratch work. Otherwise, you will be provided with

scratch paper.

• If you plan to use a calculator on the Mathematics Test,

review the details about permissible calculators on page 5.

• Use a digital timer or clock to time yourself on each test.

Set your timer for five minutes less than the allotted time

for each test so you can get used to the five-minute warn-

ing. (Students approved for extended-time should set a

timer for 60-minute warnings up to the total time allowed—

5 hours for multiple-choice tests (5 hours and 45 minutes if

taking the Writing Test).

• Allow yourself only the time permitted for each test.

• Detach and use the sample multiple-choice answer docu-

ment on pages 73–74.

• Read the general test directions on the first page of the

practice multiple-choice test. These are the same direc-

tions that will appear on your test booklet on the test day.

After you have read the directions, start your timer and

begin with Test 1. Continue through Test 4, taking a short

break between Tests 2 and 3. If you do not plan to take the

ACT Writing Test, score your multiple-choice tests using

the information beginning on page 59.

• If you plan to take the Writing Test, take a short break after

Test 4. Then read the test directions on the first page of the

practice ACT Writing Test (page 57). These are the same

directions that will appear on your test booklet on the test

day. After you have read the directions, start your timer,

then carefully read the prompt on page 58. After you have

considered what the prompt is asking you to do, use scratch

paper to plan your essay and then write your essay on the

answer document, pages 75–78. When you have finished,

score your essay using the information on pages 66–72.

Your Social Security Number

or ACT ID Number:

Your Signature (do not print):

Print Your Name Here:

ACT Assessment

This booklet contains tests in English,

Mathematics, Reading, and Science. These tests

measure skills and abilities highly related to high

school course work and success in college.

CALCULATORS MAY BE USED ON THE

MATHEMATICS TEST ONLY.

The questions in each test are numbered, and the

suggested answers for each question are lettered.

On the answer document, the rows of ovals are

numbered to match the questions, and the ovals in

each row are lettered to correspond to the suggested

answers.

For each question, first decide which answer is

best. Next, locate on the answer document the row

of ovals numbered the same as the question. Then,

locate the oval in that row lettered the same as your

answer. Finally, fill in the oval completely. Use a soft

lead pencil and make your marks heavy and black.

DO NOT USE A BALLPOINT PEN.

Mark only one answer to each question. If you

change your mind about an answer, erase your first

mark thoroughly before marking your new answer.

For each question, make certain that you mark in the

row of ovals with the same number as the question.

Only responses marked on your answer document

will be scored. Your score on each test will be

based only on the number of questions you answer

correctly during the time allowed for that test. You will

NOT be penalized for guessing.

IT IS TO YOUR

ADVANTAGE TO ANSWER EVERY QUESTION

EVEN IF YOU MUST GUESS.

You may work on each test ONLY when your test

supervisor tells you to do so. If you finish a test

before time is called for that test, you should use the

time remaining to reconsider questions you are

uncertain about in that test. You may NOT look back

to a test on which time has already been called, and

you may NOT go ahead to another test. To do so will

disqualify you from the examination.

Lay your pencil down immediately when time is

called at the end of each test. You may NOT for any

reason fill in or alter ovals for a test after time is

called for that test. To do so will disqualify you from

the examination.

Do not fold or tear the pages of your test booklet.

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOKLET

UNTIL TOLD TO DO SO.

Directions

NOTE: This booklet is covered by Federal copyright laws that prohibit the

reproduction of the test questions without the express, written permission of ACT, Inc.

P.O. BOX 168

IOWA CITY, IA 52243-0168

Form 0359F

Practice Multiple-Choice Tests

982466

ENGLISH TEST

45 Minutes—75 Questions

DIRECTIONS: In the five passages that follow, certain

words and phrases are underlined and numbered. In

the right-hand column, you will find alternatives for the

underlined part. In most cases, you are to choose the

one that best expresses the idea, makes the statement

appropriate for standard written English, or is worded

most consistently with the style and tone of the passage

as a whole. If you think the original version is best,

choose “NO CHANGE.” In some cases, you will find in

the right-hand column a question about the underlined

part. You are to choose the best answer to the question.

You will also find questions about a section of the pas-

sage, or about the passage as a whole. These questions

do not refer to an underlined portion of the passage, but

rather are identified by a number or numbers in a box.

For each question, choose the alternative you consider

best and fill in the corresponding oval on your answer

document. Read each passage through once before you

begin to answer the questions that accompany it. For

many of the questions, you must read several sentences

beyond the question to determine the answer. Be sure

that you have read far enough ahead each time you

choose an alternative.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

PASSAGE I

Notes from Underground

A lot of people hate to ride the New York City

subways, but I love them because I like to get places fast.

A musician balancing a cello case, two Buddhist monks

in saffron robes, and a group of stockbrokers in crisp,

charcoal gray suits get on at Wall Street. A passenger

placidly sews while the subway train flings and jolts. A

teenager whose holding a shoebox containing a kitten as

tiny as a gingersnap smiles even if a line of girls in frilly

white communion dresses file by. About three and a half

million people a day ride the subways I think maybe

I might possibly have met them all.

1. At this point, the writer wants to provide one reason

why she likes to ride the subways. Which choice is

most relevant to the information provided in this first

paragraph?

A. NO CHANGE

B. I never know what I’ll see there.

C. they are so much cheaper than taxis.

D. they are places of enormous quiet and calm.

2. F. NO CHANGE

G. charcoal gray suits,

H. charcoal, gray suits

J. charcoal gray, suits

3. A. NO CHANGE

B. thats

C. as

D. who’s

4. F. NO CHANGE

G. as

H. whereas

J. such that

5. A. NO CHANGE

B. subways, and

C. subways, which

D. subways actually

6. F. NO CHANGE

G. perhaps I’ve

H. I’ve possibly

J. I’ve

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

1111

Sometimes a Salvation Army volunteer boards the

subway train with sandwiches and juice to give to the

needy. “Put your pride to the side!” the volunteer shouts,

and I’ve seen many people put out their hands. The

speaker also raises money. Its impossible to predict which

people will dig into their pockets or if they were to open

their purses, and I’ve stopped trying to guess.

Last week some fellow passengers and I watched

an elderly man with a portable chessboard playing

chess against himself. Just yesterday I sat across the

aisle with a woman who was composing music

in pink-tinted glasses in a notebook. She tapped her foot

as she reviewed what she’d written and then stopped

tapping and jotted more notes as the train hurtled along.

Today is my mother’s birthday. I decided to surprise

her with lilac blooms from my backyard, so this morning,

carrying a shopping bag full of the flowers, I boarded a

crowded “E” train and rode it to the very last stop in the

7. A. NO CHANGE

B. Therefore, the

C. In conclusion, the

D. In other words, the

8. F. NO CHANGE

G. It’s

H. Its’

J. That’s

9. A. NO CHANGE

B. would have opened

C. open

D. might be opening

10. Which of the following alternatives to the underlined

portion would NOT be acceptable?

F. who played

G. as he played

H. played

J. who was playing

11. A. NO CHANGE

B. to

C. at

D. from

12. The best placement for the underlined portion would

be:

F. where it is now.

G. after the word woman.

H. after the word was.

J. after the word composing.

13. Which choice most effectively emphasizes the rapid

speed of the train?

A. NO CHANGE

B. continued on its way.

C. moved on down the tracks.

D. proceeded toward the next stop.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

1111

Bronx. Strangers smiled and took pains not to crush the

flowers, even when the train jerked to a halt. I got off

at an elevated station and, lifting the splendid bouquet,

rushed down to my mother, feeling delighted that I’d

brought the blooms all the way from Brooklyn on the

subway train.

PASSAGE II

Navajo Code Talkers

During World War II, a group of Navajo soldiers

developed a code that became one of the most successful

in U.S. military history. This group, known as the Navajo

code talkers, took part in every assault the U.S. Marines

conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945,

transmitting information, on tactics, troop movements,

orders, and other vital communications over telephones

and radios.

American military officials have been using

cumbersome machines to encode and relay information

during battles. In preliminary tests under simulated combat

14. If the writer were to delete the preceding sentence, this

paragraph would primarily lose a statement that:

F. provides physical descriptions of people on the

subway train.

G. supports the opening sentence of the essay.

H. provides evidence that people can be friendly on

the subway train.

J. gives an explanation for the narrator’s actions.

15. Suppose the writer had intended to write a brief essay

persuading readers that the subway system is New

York City’s most economical means of public trans-

portation. Would this essay fulfill the writer’s goal?

A. Yes, because the essay supplies evidence of the

large number of people using the subways.

B. Yes, because the essay describes people who are

able to give to the needy because they have extra

money in their pockets.

C. No, because the essay focuses on the kinds of

people riding the subways, not on how inexpen-

sive the subways are to ride.

D. No, because the essay focuses on the writer’s love

of all public transportation, not just the subways.

16. F. NO CHANGE

G. group which was

H. group was

J. group

17. A. NO CHANGE

B. transmitting information on:

C. transmitting information on

D. transmitting: information on

18. F. NO CHANGE

G. had

H. would have

J. will have

19. A. NO CHANGE

B. thorny

C. strenuous

D. gawky

Question 15 asks about the preceding passage

as a whole.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

1111

conditions, the Navajo encoded, transmitted, and decoded

a three-line message in twenty seconds as the machines

required thirty minutes to perform the same job.

Nevertheless, these tests convinced the

officials of the value, of using the Navajo

language in a code.

The Navajo language is complex, with a structure and

sounds that makes them unintelligible to anyone without

extensive exposure to it. Outside Navajo communities,

such exposure is rare, which greatly contributed to

it’s success.

The Navajo developed and memorized the code. Since

their language did not have words for common U.S.

military equipment, they turned to nature. They named

planes after birds and ships after fish. Dive bombers

became gini (chicken hawk) and destroyers were called

ca-lo (shark). The skilled Japanese code breakers remained

baffled by the Navajo language. The code was never

broken.

Unfortunately, the code talkers sometimes faced

dangerous peril from their own side. Many code talkers

needed bodyguards to protect them from other American

soldiers, some of whom mistook the Navajo for Japanese

20. F. NO CHANGE

G. seconds so

H. seconds,

J. seconds, whereas

21. A. NO CHANGE

B. Similarly, these

C. Still, these

D. These

22. F. NO CHANGE

G. officials, of the value

H. officials of the value

J. officials, of the value,

23. A. NO CHANGE

B. makes it

C. make it

D. make them

24. F. NO CHANGE

G. from

H. with

J. of

25. Which of the following alternatives to the underlined

portion would NOT be acceptable?

A. rare; this

B. rare this

C. rare. This

D. rare, a factor that

26. F. NO CHANGE

G. that

H. this

J. the Navajo code’s

27. A. NO CHANGE

B. The Navajo, who were various heights and weights,

C. Being of various heights and weights, the Navajo

D. The Navajo of different sizes

28. F. NO CHANGE

G. hazardous

H. risky

J. OMIT the underlined portion.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

1111

soldiers. Regardless, the Navajo were resolute and served

their country courageously.

The Navajo code remained classified after the war

that was later used, along with codes made from other

American Indian languages, in the Korean Conflict and the

Vietnam War. Now that the Navajo code is no longer used,

the code talkers, whose secret work saved American lives,

can finally receive public recognition for their actions.

PASSAGE III

An American Griot

[1] When storyteller Mary Carter

Smith practices her art and everybody listens.

[2] Wearing a brightly colored African dress, a large

turban, and bracelets, the seventy-eight-year-old Smith

seems to inhabit each of the different characters she

describes. [3] Her voice changes with each emotion she

wants to evoke. [4] Her gestures fit the pace of the

narrative. [5] And though many of the stories are intended

to make the audience laugh, Smith is fully aware of the

other values of storytelling. [6] Indeed, she identifies

strongly with the griots of West Africa—those village

storytellers where they use songs, poems, and narration to

help preserve and transmit culture and history. [7] Clearly

others recognize her as a valuable resource. [8] Smith is

the official griot of both the city of Baltimore and the state

of Maryland; she has served as griot-in-residence at

29. A. NO CHANGE

B. and which

C. and

D. OMIT the underlined portion.

30. F. NO CHANGE

G. hush-hush actions

H. concealed, hidden efforts

J. doings, kept under wraps,

31. A. NO CHANGE

B. Smith, practices her art

C. Smith, practices her art,

D. Smith practices her art,

32. F. NO CHANGE

G. Well,

H. However,

J. At once,

33. A. NO CHANGE

B. who

C. whom

D. that they

34. Which of the following alternatives to the underlined

portion would NOT be acceptable?

F. Maryland. She

G. Maryland, and she

H. Maryland and

J. Maryland, she

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

1111

several universities.

Though Smith has been interested in theater since her

youth, her recognition of her own talent grew gradually.

She worked for thirty years as a teacher and librarian in the

field of education in Baltimore public schools. She

organized theater groups in her community and took

several trips to Africa to study traditional cultures. All

along, she was telling stories—everything from social

satire to her retelling of “Cinderella” as Cindy Ellie, a

poor African American girl whose rags are transformed

into magnificent African-style gowns. Over time, she

was invited to perform in churches, libraries, and

museums.

Smith realized the extent of her gift when her

friend Alex Haley who had gathered essential material

critical to writing his best-selling novel Roots from

a griot in Gambia, began to refer to her as “my

American griot,” this was a revelation to Smith.

35. The writer is considering deleting the phrase “at sev-

eral universities” from Sentence 8. If the phrase were

deleted, the essay would primarily lose:

A. an essential link to the paragraph that follows.

B. a contrast for the purpose of making a comparison.

C. information that qualifies the term griot-in-residence.

D. an unnecessary detail.

36. Which of the following words or phrases from the pre-

ceding sentence is LEAST necessary and could there-

fore be deleted?

F. thirty

G. and librarian

H. in the field of education

J. Baltimore public

37. A. NO CHANGE

B. Ellie. A

C. Ellie; a

D. Ellie, she was a

38. At this point, the writer is considering adding the fol-

lowing true statement:

In high school, Smith was a member of both

the drama and speech clubs.

Should the writer make this addition here?

F. Yes, because it supports the idea that Smith was

telling stories throughout her life.

G. Yes, because it supports the idea expressed earlier

that Smith organized theater groups in her commu-

nity.

H. No, because it contradicts the point made earlier

that Smith worked for thirty years as a teacher and

librarian.

J. No, because it distracts the reader from the main

focus of the paragraph and does not logically fit at

this point in the essay.

39. A. NO CHANGE

B. friend, Alex Haley

C. friend Alex Haley;

D. friend Alex Haley,

40. F. NO CHANGE

G. for

H. important to

J. that was essential to

41. A. NO CHANGE

B. griot” that

C. griot.” This

D. griot,”

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

1111

“Hearing that was like a man who has shoed horses all his

life being told, ‘You’re a blacksmith!’” she recalls.

Today, Smith’s repertoire is so vast that she could

speak consecutively for twelve hours straight without

running out of material. It’s unlikely she would ever

attempt such a feat, but if she did, there would be no

dull moments.

PASSAGE IV

Baseballs and Butterflies

[1] Our son has started playing organized T-ball, a

beginner’s version of baseball. [2] “Organized” is what

parents call it, anyway. [3] Joe is seven, living in those two

or three years when they can manage to throw a baseball a

few feet but when what they’re really interested in are

42. Given that all the choices are quotations from Mary

Carter Smith, which one would best support the argu-

ment the writer is making concerning Smith’s belated

discovery of her own talent?

F. NO CHANGE

G. “You’ve got to reveal truths to your listeners,” she

says.

H. “Through his novel Roots, Alex Haley was in

some ways performing the function of a griot for

America,” she says.

J. “I’d say that one of the most crucial moments in

my development as a storyteller is the few hours I

once spent listening to a griot in West Africa,” she

recalls.

43. A. NO CHANGE

B. continuously nonstop

C. perpetually

D. OMIT the underlined portion.

44. F. NO CHANGE

G. It’s unlikely,

H. Its unlikely,

J. Its unlikely

45. Suppose the writer had intended to write a brief essay

focusing on the various ways that storytelling influ-

ences community values. Would this essay success-

fully fulfill the writer’s goal?

A. Yes, because the essay indicates that Smith believes

storytelling pulls a community together.

B. Yes, because the essay shows that Smith’s Baltimore

community valued her gift as a storyteller.

C. No, because the essay focuses on the griots of

West Africa, not on community values.

D. No, because the essay’s main focus is on one sto-

ryteller and the way in which she practices her art.

46. F. NO CHANGE

G. children

H. he

J. some of them

Question 45 asks about the preceding passage

as a whole.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

1111

things closer at hand, bugs, butterflies, dirt (if they’re in

the infield), grass (if they’re in the outfield). [4] Children

of that age still think nothing of doing little dances in the

outfield, often with their backs to home plate and,

consequently, the batter. [5] It’s not as if the outfielders’

positions matter much, though—the ball never gets hit

hard enough to reach there.

Since there’s not much chance that a seven-year-old

just learning the game can hit a pitched baseball, the

umpire puts the ball on top of a stationary tee, a piece of

flexible tubing adjusted to each batter’s height. If batters

repeatedly fail to hit the ball—and lots of them do—the

umpire is patient, giving them four or five chances instead

of the usual three. When a batter finally makes

contact, the ball dribbles into the infield, where the

nearest player usually ends up throwing the ball at the

first baseman’s feet or, if the fielder is precocious, over

the first baseman’s head.

47. A. NO CHANGE

B. hand, bugs, butterflies, dirt,

C. hand: bugs, butterflies, dirt

D. hand: bugs, butterflies, dirt,

48. F. NO CHANGE

G. if

H. whether

J. as to whether

49. The writer wishes to add the following sentence in

order to emphasize the uncertainty already expressed

about an idea in the paragraph:

I still have doubts.

The new sentence would best amplify and be placed

after Sentence:

A. 1.

B. 2.

C. 3.

D. 4.

50. F. NO CHANGE

G. While

H. Although

J. Unless

51. Which of the following alternatives to the underlined

portion would NOT be acceptable?

A. umpire patiently gives

B. umpire, who is patient, gives

C. umpire, who patiently gives

D. patient umpire gives

52. If the writer were to delete the word repeatedly and the

phrase “and lots of them do” (and the dashes) from the

preceding sentence, the sentence would primarily lose:

F. a tone of admiration for the work of the umpires.

G. details about the rules of T-ball.

H. an explanation of why children often fail to hit the

ball.

J. a sense of how difficult the task is for the children.

53. A. NO CHANGE

B. accomplishes a result of

C. attains the consequence of

D. results in

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

1111

In a T-ball league, one needs to do something to keep

the score from reaching triple digits in the early going.

There’s a rule, therefore, that says the runner must stop

when any fielder from the other team picks up the ball and

holds it aloft. The rule might seem a good one, but the

children can’t remember to hold up the ball. Once

they’ve picked it up, they look at it quizzically for a

while and then, look up to see what all the ruckus is about.

What it’s about a bleacher section full of parents, each

adult frantically holding up a stiff arm. The child with the

ball wonders at the grown-up’s odd, noisy behavior.

Meanwhile, the runners continue to score. They score, that

is, if they were not to be distracted by the grown-ups—or

the butterflies.

54. F. NO CHANGE

G. instead,

H. likewise,

J. meanwhile,

55. A. NO CHANGE

B. regulation-sized ball.

C. ball, which is regulation sized.

D. ball, which is the same size as a regular baseball.

56. F. NO CHANGE

G. then, look up, to see

H. then look up to see,

J. then look up to see

57. A. NO CHANGE

B. That’s

C. It’s

D. Thats

58. F. NO CHANGE

G. grown-ups’

H. grown-ups

J. grown-ups,

59. A. NO CHANGE

B. they would not have been

C. they’re not

D. they’re not to be

60. Suppose the writer had intended to write an essay

describing one child’s experiences playing T-ball.

Would this essay accomplish the writer’s goal?

F. Yes, because it reveals that the narrator’s son Joe

is now playing T-ball, and then it goes on to

describe Joe’s experiences at one of his games.

G. Yes, because it discusses the narrator’s son Joe’s

T-ball skills, such as the fact that he can throw a

baseball a few feet.

H. No, because while it mentions that the narrator’s

son Joe plays T-ball, it also notes he is more inter-

ested in things such as dirt and bugs.

J. No, because although the T-ball experiences of the

narrator’s son Joe are alluded to, it is primarily

about the general features of T-ball games.

Question 60 asks about the preceding passage

as a whole.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

1111

PASSAGE V

Fixing Raptor Feathers

Raptors, or birds of prey, cannot afford to be

grounded for weeks waiting for a large number of

flight feathers to regrow. They must be able to fly if

they are to hunt and eat. Raptors, including eagles and

hawks, therefore normally shed their feathers slowly,

one or two at a time.

The premature loss of a flight feather to

injury, then, is not an incidental matter to

raptors, most of which are diurnal. If a feather

breaks off with the stub of its hollow quill shaft still in

place, the bird’s body mistakenly believes the feather is

whole. Only when the quill socket containing the stub is

empty will a new feather grow. Quills are hollow, so the

removal of a quill stub before it is ready to be naturally

shed would be very painful to the animal. Bird

rehabilitators, therefore, treat broken raptor feathers

through imping—the implanting of a new feather into

the quill stub.

61. The writer wants to describe the way raptors shed

feathers. Which choice would be most consistent with

the way the feather-shedding process has been described

up to this point?

A. NO CHANGE

B. in an all-at-once blizzard.

C. often losing them in clumps.

D. leaving them flightless for long periods of time.

62. F. NO CHANGE

G. raptors.

H. raptors, most of which are mainly active during

the day—that is, diurnal.

J. raptors, daytime-hunting creatures for the most

part.

63. Which of the following alternatives to the underlined

portion would NOT be acceptable?

A. sound.

B. complete.

C. total.

D. intact.

64. Given that all of the choices are true, which one most

clearly provides a reason for the statement that follows

in this sentence?

F. NO CHANGE

G. fasten deeply,

H. break occasionally,

J. are very light,

65. A. NO CHANGE

B. they are

C. those are

D. that is

66. Which of the following alternatives to the underlined

portion would NOT be acceptable?

F. imping, which is the

G. imping: the

H. imping. The

J. imping, the

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

1111

The bird rehabilitator begins by determining which

feather has been damaged. On each wing, all flighted

birds, having ten primary flight feathers, each one shaped

slight different. If the left number seven feather is broken

off, the rehabilitator selects a number seven feather from a

collection kept exclusively for imping. If necessary, a

number six or eight feather can be carefully trimmed with

small scissors to the shape of a number seven feather.

The quill of this replacement feather is trimmed so that

when the replacement feather is eventually attached to the

quill stub still in the bird’s body, the repaired feather will

be equal in length to the original, whole feather.

Next, the rehabilitator whittles a bamboo chopstick

to duplicate the curve and slant of the complete feather

shaft. He or she then inserts the carved chopstick

into the quill stub. After sliding the shaft of the

replacement feather over the sturdy, light bamboo

stick, glue—just a touch—is applied. The raptor now

has a rebuilt, functional feather. Eventually, it will be

67. A. NO CHANGE

B. birds, by having

C. birds, which have

D. birds have

68. F. NO CHANGE

G. slight differently.

H. slightly differently.

J. slightly more different.

69. The writer is considering revising the preceding sen-

tence to read as follows:

If necessary, a number six or eight feather can

be cut to the shape of a number seven feather.

If the writer did this, the sentence would primarily lose

a sense of how:

A. limited rehabilitators’ feather collections are.

B. delicate the work being described is.

C. different each of a bird’s flight feathers is.

D. easy it is to replace a number seven feather.

70. F. NO CHANGE

G. be equally long

H. equal the length

J. equal in length

71. A. NO CHANGE

B. However,

C. Indeed,

D. Finally,

72. F. NO CHANGE

G. a touch of glue is applied by the rehabilitator.

H. the application of a touch of glue follows.

J. the rehabilitator applies a touch of glue.

73. Which of the following alternatives to the underlined

portion would NOT be acceptable?

A. feather; eventually, it

B. feather, eventually, it

C. feather, which eventually

D. feather that eventually

ACT-59F-PRACTICE

1111

shed, allowing a new, complete feather to grow in it’s

place.

74. F. NO CHANGE

G. grow in its

H. have grow in its

J. have grow in it’s

75. At this point, the writer is considering adding the fol-

lowing true statement:

This imping procedure is just one of the many

responsibilities bird rehabilitators have.

Should the writer make this addition here?

A. Yes, because it reveals the relative importance of

imping compared to the other work of bird rehabil-

itators.

B. Yes, because it reinforces the idea that imping is

of great benefit to raptors.

C. No, because it goes beyond the scope of the essay,

which focuses on how the feathers of certain types

of birds are repaired.

D. No, because it undermines the essay’s earlier

claim that imping is the most important work that

bird rehabilitators do.

END OF TEST 1

STOP! DO NOT TURN THE PAGE UNTIL TOLD TO DO SO.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

MATHEMATICS TEST

60 Minutes—60 Questions

ACT-59F-PRACTICE

DIRECTIONS: Solve each problem, choose the correct

answer, and then fill in the corresponding oval on your

answer document.

Do not linger over problems that take too much time.

Solve as many as you can; then return to the others in

the time you have left for this test.

You are permitted to use a calculator on this test. You

may use your calculator for any problems you choose,

but some of the problems may best be done without

using a calculator.

Note: Unless otherwise stated, all of the following should

be assumed.

1. Illustrative figures are NOT necessarily drawn to scale.

2. Geometric figures lie in a plane.

3. The word

line

indicates a straight line.

4. The word

average

indicates arithmetic mean.

1. Carmen is playing with blocks. She arranges stacks of

blocks so that each successive level of blocks has

1 fewer block than the level below it and the top level

has 1 block. Such a stack with 3 levels is shown below.

Carmen wants to make such a stack with 12 levels.

How many blocks would she use to build this stack?

A. 66

B. 78

C. 132

D. 144

E. 156

2. To keep up with rising expenses, a motel manager

needs to raise the $40.00 room rate by 22%. What will

be the new rate?

F. $40.22

G. $42.20

H. $48.00

J. $48.80

K. $62.00

3. As a salesperson, your commission is directly propor-

tional to the dollar amount of sales you make. If your

sales are $800, your commission is $112. How much

commission would you earn if you had $1,400 in

sales?

A. $210

B. $196

C. $175

D. $128

E. $64

level 1

level 2

level 3

4. If 7 + 3x = 22, then 2x =?

F. 5

G. 10

H. 12

J. 14

5. The total cost of renting a car is $30.00 for each day

the car is rented plus 28 ¢ for each mile the car is

driven. What is the total cost of renting the car for

5 days and driving 350 miles?

(Note: No sales tax is involved.)

A. $ 104.75

B. $ 159.98

C. $ 249.75

D. $ 300.00

E. $1,147.50

6. In any parallelogram ABCD, it is always true that the

measures of ∠ABC and ∠BCD:

F. add up to 180°.

G. add up to 90°.

H. are each greater than 90°.

J. are each 90°.

K. are each less than 90°.

MATHEMATICS TEST

60 Minutes—60 Questions

DIRECTIONS: Solve each problem, choose the correct

answer, and then fill in the corresponding oval on your

answer document.

Do not linger over problems that take too much time.

Solve as many as you can; then return to the others in

the time you have left for this test.

You are permitted to use a calculator on this test. You

may use your calculator for any problems you choose,

but some of the problems may best be done without

using a calculator.

Note: Unless otherwise stated, all of the following should

be assumed.

1. Illustrative figures are NOT necessarily drawn to scale.

2. Geometric figures lie in a plane.

3. The word

line

indicates a straight line.

4. The word

average

indicates arithmetic mean.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

2222

7. What is the least common denominator for adding the

fractions , , and ?

A. 40

B. 120

C. 180

D. 480

E. 1,440

8. The product (2x

y)(3x

) is equivalent to:

F. 5x

G. 6x

H. 6x

J. 5x

K. 6x

9. It costs a dollars for an adult ticket to a reggae concert

and s dollars for a student ticket. The difference

between the cost of 12 adult tickets and 18 student

tickets is $36. Which of the following equations repre-

sents this relationship between a and s ?

A. = 36

B. 216as =36

⎪

12a –18s

⎪

= 36

⎪

12a +18s

⎪

= 36

⎪

18a +12s

⎪

= 36

10. If x > 1, then which of the following has the LEAST

value?

公僓

公僓僓

公僓僓僓僓

x · x

J. x

公僓

K. x · x

11. Charles defined a new operation,

♦, on pairs of ordered

pairs of integers as follows: (a,b) ♦ (c,d)= .

What is the value of (2,1) ♦ (3,4) ?

A. –2

B. –1

C. 2

D. 5

E. 10

ac + bd

_______

ab – cd

12a

____

18s

12. In the figure below, ∠BAC measures 30°, ∠ABC mea-

sures 110°, and points B, C, and D are collinear. What

is the measure of ∠ACD ?

F. 150°

G. 140°

H. 130°

J. 120°

K. 110°

13. In the isosceles right triangle below, AB = 10 feet.

What is the length, in feet, of AC

___

A. 5

B. 10

C. 20

公僓僓

E. 10

公僓

14. In a bag of 400 jelly beans, 25% of the jelly beans are

red in color. If you randomly pick a jelly bean from the

bag, what is the probability that the jelly bean picked

is NOT one of the red jelly beans?

10′

BCD

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

2222

15. What polynomial must be added to x

–2x + 6 so that

the sum is 3x

+7x ?

A. 4x

+5x +6

B. 3x

+9x +6

C. 3x

+9x –6

D. 2x

+9x –6

E. 2x

–5x +6

16. What is the slope of any line parallel to the line

8x +9y = 3 in the standard (x,y) coordinate plane?

F. –8

G. –

J. 3

K. 8

17. In the standard (x,y) coordinate plane, a line segment

has its endpoints at (3,6) and (9,4). What are the coor-

dinates of the midpoint of the line segment?

A. ( 3,–1)

B. (3,1)

C. (6,2)

D. (6,5)

E. (12,10)

18. When y = x

, which of the following expressions is

equivalent to –y ?

F. (–x)

G. –x

H. –x

J. x

–2

K. x

19. For the function h(x)=4x

–5x, what is the value of

h(–3) ?

A. –93

B. –9

C. 21

D. 51

E. 159

20. For all triangles 䉭XYZ where side XZ

___

is longer than

side YZ

___

, such as the triangle shown below, which of

the following statements is true?

F. The measure of ∠X is always less than the mea-

sure of ∠Y.

G. The measure of ∠X is always equal to the measure

of ∠Y.

H. The measure of ∠X is always greater than the mea-

sure of ∠Y.

J. The measure of ∠X is sometimes less than the

measure of ∠Y and sometimes equal to the mea-

sure of ∠Y.

K. The measure of ∠X is sometimes greater than the

measure of ∠Y and sometimes equal to the mea-

sure of ∠Y.

21.

⎪

7(–3) + 2(4)

⎪

A. –28

B. –13

C. 13

D. 28

E. 29

22. If x >

⎪

, which of the following is the solution state-

ment for

x when y =–4?

F. x is any real number.

G. x >4

H. x <4

J. –4 < x <4

K. x >4orx <–4

23. The perimeter of a parallelogram is 72 inches, and

1 side measures 12 inches. What are the lengths, in

inches, of the other 3 sides?

A. 12, 12, 36

B. 12, 18, 18

C. 12, 24, 24

D. 12, 30, 30

E. Cannot be determined from the given information

24. The lengths of the corresponding sides of 2 similar

right triangles are in the ratio of 2:5. If the hypotenuse

of the smaller triangle is 5 inches long, how many

inches long is the hypotenuse of the larger triangle?

F. 2

G. 2.5

H. 7

J. 10

K. 12.5

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

2222

25. The sides of a square are 3 cm long. One vertex of the

square is at (3,0) on a square coordinate grid marked in

centimeter units. Which of the following points could

also be a vertex of the square?

A. (6, 0)

冸

4,1

冹

C. (1, 2)

D. ( 0, –2)

E. (–3, 0)

26. In the circle shown below, M is the center and lies on

____

and ST

___

. Which of the following statements is NOT

true?

F. ∠TUM measures 65°

G. TU

____

is parallel to RS

___

H. TXU

២

measures 50°

J. RM

____

≅ TM

____

K. RS

___

≅ SM

____

27. John Jones has decided to go into the business of pro-

ducing and selling boats. In order to begin this venture,

he must invest $10 million in a boat production plant.

The cost to produce each boat will be $7,000, and the

selling price will be $20,000. Accounting for the cost

of the production plant, which of the following expres-

sions represents the profit, in dollars, that John will

realize when x boats are produced and sold?

A. 13,000x – 10,000,000

B. 27,000x – 10,000,000

C. 9,973,000x

D. 20,000x

E. 13,000x

28. If 2x

+6x = 36, what are the possible values of x ?

F. –12 and 3

G. –6 and 3

H. –3 and 6

J. –3 and 12

K. 12 and 15

50°

29. As a class experiment, a cart was rolled at a constant

rate along a straight line. Shawn recorded in the chart

below the cart’s distance (x), in feet, from a reference

point at the start of the experiment and for each of

5 times (t), in seconds.

t 012345

x 10 14 18 22 26 30

Which of the following equations represents this data?

A. x = t +10

B. x =4t + 6

C. x =4t +10

D. x =10t +4

E. x =14t

30. To increase the mean of 4 numbers by 2, by how much

would the sum of the 4 numbers have to increase?

F. 2

G. 4

H. 6

J. 8

K. 16

31. Meg pounded a stake into the ground. When she

attached a leash to both the stake and her dog’s collar,

the dog could reach 9 feet from the stake in any direc-

tion. Using 3.14 for π, what is the approximate area of

the lawn, in square feet, the dog could reach from the

stake?

A. 28

B. 57

C. 113

D. 254

E. 283

32. Television screen sizes are the diagonal length of the

rectangular screen. Hector recently changed from

watching a television with a 13-inch screen to a televi-

sion with a similar 19-inch screen. If a boxcar

appeared 8 inches long on the 13-inch screen, how

long, to the nearest inch, will it appear on the 19-inch

screen?

F. 10

G. 12

H. 14

J. 16

K. 18

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

2222

33. In the figure below, ABCD is a square. Points are

chosen on each pair of adjacent sides of ABCD to form

4 congruent right triangles, as shown below. Each of

these has one leg that is twice as long as the other leg.

What fraction of the area of square ABCD is shaded?

34. A surveyor took and recorded the measurements

shown in the figure below. If the surveyor wants to use

these 3 measurements to calculate the length of the

pond, which of the following would be the most

directly applicable?

F. The Pythagorean theorem

G. A formula for the area of a triangle

H. The ratios for the side lengths of 30°-60°-90°

triangles

J. The ratios for the side lengths of 45°-45°-90°

triangles

K. The law of cosines: For any 䉭ABC, where a is the

length of the side opposite ∠A, b is the length of

the side opposite ∠B, and c is the length of the

side opposite ∠C, a

= b

+ c

–2bc cos(∠A)

119.8°

35. Which of the following is the graph of the equation

2x + y = 4 in the standard (x,y) coordinate plane?

36. Which of the following figures in a plane separates it

into half-planes?

F. A line

G. A ray

H. An angle

J. A point

K. A line segment

37. What is the maximum number of distinct diagonals

that can be drawn in the hexagon shown below?

A. 4

B. 5

C. 6

D. 9

E. 12

–4

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

2222

38. In the standard (x,y) coordinate plane, the center of the

circle shown below lies on the x-axis at x = 4. If the

circle is tangent to the y-axis, which of the following is

an equation of the circle?

F. (x +4)

+ y

= 4

G. (x –4)

+ y

=16

H. (x –4)

– y

=16

J. (x –4)

+ y

K. x

+(y –4)

=16

39. In what order should , , , and be listed to be

arranged by increasing size?

A. << <

B. <<<

C. <<<

D. < < <

E. << <

40. Mai is putting gold foil around the outside of an ellip-

tical picture frame. The perimeter of an ellipse is given

by the formula p = , where h is the

height and w is the width, as shown in the diagram

below. If an elliptical frame has an outside height

equal to 4 inches and an outside width equal to

3 inches, what is its outside perimeter, in inches?

F. π

公僓

G. π

公僓

H. 5π

公僓

J. (4

公僓

2+3)

K. (4π +3)

公僓

41. If + = and

A, B, and x are integers

greater than 1, then what must x equal?

A. 9

B. 135

C. 210

D. 630

E. 3,150

7A + 2B

________

___

105

公

僓僓僓僓僓僓僓僓

2(h

+ w

)

Kaylee is planning to purchase a car. She will need to

borrow some of the money and has a chart, shown below, to

use to approximate her monthly payment. The chart gives

the approximate monthly payment per $1,000 borrowed.

Monthly payment per $1,000 borrowed for various

annual rates and various numbers of payments

Number of monthly payments

Annual interest

rate 364860

5% $29.97 $23.03 $18.87

8% $31.34 $24.41 $20.28

10% $32.27 $25.36 $21.24

12% $33.22 $26.34 $22.24

42. Kaylee found a used car she is thinking about pur-

chasing. The list price is $8,795. She calculates that

she will need to borrow $6,500. Approximately what

would her monthly payment be if she borrowed the

money for 36 months at an annual interest rate of

10% ?

F. $164.84

G. $171.21

H. $209.76

J. $234.72

K. $283.81

43. A local dealership is having an end-of-the-model-year

clearance sale and is offering 5% annual interest on

new-car loans for 36, 48, or 60 months. The maximum

amount Kaylee can budget for her monthly car pay-

ment is $300. Of the following loan amounts, which

one is the maximum Kaylee can borrow at 5% annual

interest and stay within her budget?

A. $10,000

B. $13,000

C. $14,000

D. $15,000

E. $20,000

44. Another dealership is offering 5-year loans with a

9% annual interest rate. Kaylee uses her chart to esti-

mate the payment per $1,000 borrowed. Of the fol-

lowing, which is most likely the monthly payment per

$1,000 borrowed?

F. $20.52

G. $20.76

H. $20.85

J. $21.00

K. $21.74

Use the following information to answer

questions 42–44.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

2222

45. In 䉭ABC, shown below, the measure of ∠B is 41°, the

measure of ∠C is 34°, and AB

___

is 25 units long. Which

of the following is an expression for the length, in

units, of BC

___

(Note: The law of sines states that, for any triangle, the

ratios of the sines of the interior angles to the lengths

of the sides opposite those angles are equal.)

46. For i

= –1, (4 + i)

F. 15

G. 17

H. 15 + 4i

J. 15 + 8i

K. 16 + 4i

47. If r and s can be any integers such that s > 10 and

2r + s = 15, which of the following is the solution set

for r ?

A. r ≥ 3

B. r ≥ 0

C. r ≥ 2

D. r ≤ 0

E. r ≤ 2

48. Which of the following expressions has a positive

value for all x and y such that x > 0 and y <0?

F. y – x

G. x + y

H. x

25 sin 34⬚

_________

sin 75⬚

25 sin 41⬚

_________

sin 105⬚

25 sin 75⬚

_________

sin 41⬚

25 sin 105⬚

__________

sin 34⬚

25 sin 105⬚

__________

sin 41⬚

34°

41°

25 units

49. What is the value of log

A. 3

B. 4

C. 6

D. 10

E. 16

50. In the right triangle below, the measure of ∠C is 90°,

AB = 5 units, and CB = 2 units. What is tan B ?

51. A flight instructor charges $50 per lesson, plus an

additional fee for the use of his plane. The charge for

the use of the plane varies directly with the square root

of the time the plane is used. If a lesson plus 16 min-

utes of plane usage costs $90, what is the total amount

charged for a lesson having 36 minutes of plane usage?

A. $185

B. $150

C. $135

D. $110

E. $60

52. In 䉭ABD, shown below, C is on BD

___

, the length of AD

___

is 6 inches, and sin d = 0.8. How many inches long is

___

F. 1.2

G. 1.8

H. 3.6

J. 4.8

K. Cannot be determined from the given information

53. For real numbers a and b, when is the equation

⎪

a + b

⎪

a – b

⎪

true?

A. Always

B. Only when

a = b

C. Only when a = 0 and b = 0

D. Only when a =0 or b =0

E. Never

BC D

公僓僓

_____

公僓僓

_____

ACT-59F-PRACTICE

2222

54. As shown below, rectangle ABCD is divided into

2 large squares (labeled L) each x inches on a side,

15 small squares (labeled S) each y inches on a side,

and 13 rectangles (labeled R) each x inches by

y inches. What is the total area, in square inches, of

ABCD ?

F. 2x +13xy +15y

G. 6x +16y

H. 2x

+15y

J. 2x

+ 8xy + 15y

K. 2x

+ 13xy + 15y

55. For some real number A , the graph of the line

y =(A +1)x + 8 in the standard (x,y) coordinate plane

passes through (2,6). What is the slope of this line?

A. –4

B. –3

C. –1

D. 3

E. 7

56. The graph of the equation h = –at

+ bt + c, which

describes how the height, h, of a hit baseball changes

over time, t, is shown below.

If you alter only this equation’s c term, which gives

the height at time t = 0, the alteration has an effect on

which of the following?

I. The h-intercept

II. The maximum value of h

III. The t-intercept

F. I only

G. II only

H. III only

J. I and III only

K. I, II, and III

height

time

RRRRR

57. When graphed in the standard (x,y) coordinate plane,

the lines x = –3 and y = x – 3 intersect at what point?

A. (0,0)

B. ( 0,–3)

C. (–3, 0)

D. (–3,–3)

E. (–3,–6)

58. In pentagon ABCDE, shown below, ∠A measures 50°.

What is the total measure of the other 4 interior angles?

F. 130°

G. 200°

H. 310°

J. 432°

K. 490°

59. For all real numbers b and c such that the product of

c and 3 is b, which of the following expressions repre-

sents the sum of c and 3 in terms of b ?

A. b +3

B. 3b +3

C. 3(b +3)

E. + 3

60. Which of the following expresses the number of

meters a contestant must travel in a 3-lap race where

the course is a circle of radius R meters?

F. 3R

G. 3πR

H. 3πR

J. 6R

K. 6πR

b + 3

_ _ ___

50°

END OF TEST 2

STOP! DO NOT TURN THE PAGE UNTIL TOLD TO DO SO.

DO NOT RETURN TO THE PREVIOUS TEST.

READING TEST

35 Minutes—40 Questions

DIRECTIONS: There are four passages in this test. Each

passage is followed by several questions. After reading

a passage, choose the best answer to each question

and fill in the corresponding oval on your answer

document. You may refer to the passages as often as

necessary.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

3333

Passage I

PROSE FICTION: This passage is adapted from the title story

Only the Little Bone,

a collection of short stories by David

My grandfather has made crutches for me. These

are sturdy crutches, just the right size. I am delighted

with them and launch myself around the house on them.

And take a fall immediately. And continue falling

several times a day, great splatting, knocking-into-fur-

niture-and-breaking-things falls that cause everyone in

the family to come running. My grandfather has for-

gotten to put rubber tips on the ends of my crutches.

When we figure this out and buy the rubber tips and put

them on the crutches, I stop falling. But by then the

bone-set that was coming along nicely has slipped, and

the doctor has ordered me back to the wheelchair.

The missing crutch-tips are the first clue I have to

this peculiar family trait, one that for lack of any better

term I must call “flawed competence.” We Bryants are

a family of able and clever people, industrious, intelli-

gent, determined, and of good will. We are careful in

our work. After all, my grandfather measured me on

two occasions before he made the crutches. But we usu-

ally do something wrong.

Four years later I become increasingly aware of

“flawed competence” when I develop a plan for con-

verting our old grown-over tennis court into a basket-

ball court. My grandfather is always interested in plans,

and in this planning session, we decide that he will

make the hoops, and he will help me make the back-

boards. Clearing the ground and smoothing the surface

will be my tasks. So I rip out honeysuckle and hatchet

down a few little scrub cedars. We Bryants are known

for setting our minds to things.

Then my grandfather delivers the hoops. They are

beautifully designed and constructed, metalwork of a

high order for such amateurs as my grandfather and his

men. But the hoops are twice as big around as ordinary

basketball hoops.

I say, simply, that they are too big. I am not

ungrateful, not trying to be hateful, not in my opinion

being overly fastidious. I am simply describing a char-

acteristic of the hoops. But my grandfather’s feelings

are damaged. No, they can’t be made smaller, and no,

he’s not interested in helping me with the backboards

now or with any other part of my plan. He’s sorry he

got involved in the first place. This, too, is a corollary

of “flawed competence.” We are sensitive, especially

about our work, especially about the flawed part of our

work.

At the place where I work twenty-eight years after

the basketball hoops, I am given a new office, one with

a view of the lake. There’s a string attached, though,

and that is that I have to build my own bookcases. I

commence planning with enthusiasm. That’s another,

less harmful family trait, that attraction to making

plans. I measure, I look at other people’s shelves, I get

someone to help me attach brackets to my office walls.

It is while I am cutting a notch in one of the

uprights to allow access to the light-switch that I sud-

denly think of my grandfather and those basketball

hoops. I feel a light sweat break out on my forehead. A

pattern of genetic fate reveals itself to me: I’m going to

mess up these bookshelves just as my grandfather

before me would have messed them up. No doubt I’m

sawing the notch in the wrong place.

The whole time I work I wait to see where the

screw-up is going to come. I imagine what my col-

leagues will be saying about me in the hallways. Did

you know that Bryant built his shelves so they tilt? Did

you know that Bryant’s books rejected the color he

painted his shelves? But the screw-up doesn’t appear. I

paint the shelves red, and they look O.K. (Granddaddy

Bryant once painted yellow a whole row of company

houses he built.) I paint a chair blue and red, and it’s

a little silly-looking, but it picks up the blue of the

carpet and the red of the shelves. The vision isn’t

nearly as impressive as I thought it would be, but then

what vision ever is? We plan-makers are accustomed

to things turning out not-quite-as-good-as-we-had-

in-mind. Our world view includes the “diminished

excellence” component. Diminished excellence is a

condition of the world and therefore never an occasion

for sorrow, whereas flawed competence comes out of

character and therefore is frequently the reason for the

bowed head, the furrowed brow. Three months later,

when I try to turn the heat off in my office, I discover

that I have placed one of the shelf uprights too close to

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

3333

the radiator to be able to work the valve. The screw-up

was there all along, but in this case I am relieved to

find it. I am my grandfather’s grandson after all.

1. The passage is written from the point of view of:

A. an unidentified narrator observing the relationship

over time between a boy and his grandfather.

B. two members of the same family discovering their

shared trait through joint activities.

C. a grown man agonizing over the mixed messages

he received as a child from older relatives.

D. a boy and the man he becomes considering inci-

dents that illustrate a family trait.

2. Which of the following best describes the author’s

approach to presenting the story of the narrator’s dis-

covery about himself?

F. Revealing the narrator’s self-awareness about a

trait through a blend of personal reflection and

scenes from the narrator’s youth and adulthood

G. Starting immediately with a statement of the dis-

covery in the narrator’s voice and continuing with

scenes that reveal how the discovery came about

H. Describing the physical details of scenes and sum-

marizing their significance in a concluding state-

ment in the narrator’s voice

J. Using dialogue in the midst of scenes fraught with

tension to indicate what the narrator is experi-

encing internally

3. Each of the three projects described in the passage

reveals:

A. the increasing antagonism between the grandfather

and grandson.

B. the errors the narrator makes and the disapproval

they bring from others.

C. that such incidents set the stage for the Bryant

family traits to emerge.

D. that the narrator is determined to avoid being

ungrateful, hateful, or overly fastidious.

4. The boy’s approach to the task of converting the tennis

court to a basketball court can best be described as:

F. reluctant until his grandfather’s plans inspire him.

G. enthusiastic until his grandfather’s error puts them

both in an awkward position.

H. apprehensive until he discovers his error is not a

devastating one.

J. thrilled until he remembers that his grandfather is

a poor planner.

5. As he is revealed in the incident of undertaking the

construction of the basketball court, the grandfather

can best be characterized as:

A. confidently optimistic, then childishly defensive.

B. charmingly patient, then increasingly accusatory.

C. consistently encouraging in spite of setbacks.

D. vocally defensive, then quietly apologetic.

6. The question “Did you know that Bryant built his

shelves so they tilt?” (lines 65–66) helps establish that

the narrator is anxious because:

F. his coworkers have discovered his incompetence

and have made it the subject of office humor.

G. his coworkers resent his having a corner office and

punish him with their biting humor.

H. he fears his incompetence is so glaring it will

make him the object of ridicule among coworkers.

J. the tilting bookshelves remind him that, like his

grandfather, he cannot hide his mistakes.

7. Information in the second paragraph (lines 4–12)

reveals that the family’s response to the grandfather’s

error with the crutches is to:

A. find a workable remedy for it.

B. lay the blame on the narrator.

C. praise him for more successful projects.

D. fix what wasn’t wrong in the first place.

8. It can most reasonably be inferred from the sixth para-

graph (lines 36–46) that the statement that the basket-

ball hoops “can’t be made smaller” (line 40) is:

F. a fact stated by the grandfather apologetically.

G. an opinion stated by the grandfather indignantly.

H. a claim the narrator makes to humiliate a relative.

J. a conclusion the narrator reaches after hard labor.

9. It can most reasonably be inferred that the narrator’s

discovery that an error has been made in constructing

the bookshelves is for him a source of:

A. embarrassment in the face of coworkers who antic-

ipated it.

B. comfort because it reveals a trait that he shares

with his family.

C. frustration because it will require a remedy that

will be tedious to carry out.

D. relief because it gives him an excuse to seek the

assistance of coworkers in finishing the project.

10. In the last paragraph, a comparison is made between

“diminished excellence” and “flawed competence.”

From the narrator’s point of view, the conditions are

different because the one is:

F. a source of sorrow while the other is a source of

pride.

G. based in the family while the other is based in the

self.

H. inherent in the environment while the other is

inherent in the individual.

J. a sign that the individual can improve the world

while the other is a sign that the individual can’t.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

3333

Passage II

SOCIAL SCIENCE: This passage is adapted from Dava

Sobel’s book

Longitude

To learn one’s longitude at sea, one needs to know

what time it is aboard ship and also the time at the

home port or another place of known longitude—at that

very same moment. The two clock times enable the

navigator to convert the hour difference into a geo-

graphical separation. Since the Earth takes twenty-four

hours to complete one full revolution of three hundred

sixty degrees, one hour marks one twenty-fourth of a

spin, or fifteen degrees. And so each hour’s time differ-

ence between the ship and the starting point marks a

progress of fifteen degrees of longitude to the east or

west. Every day at sea, when the navigator resets the

ship’s clock to local noon when the sun reaches its

highest point in the sky, and then consults the home-

port clock, every hour’s discrepancy between them

translates into another fifteen degrees of longitude.

Those same fifteen degrees of longitude also cor-

respond to a distance traveled. At the Equator, where

the girth of the Earth is greatest, fifteen degrees stretch

fully one thousand miles. North or south of that line,

however, the mileage value of each degree decreases.

One degree of longitude equals four minutes of time

the world over, but in terms of distance, one degree

shrinks from sixty-eight miles at the Equator to virtu-

ally nothing at the poles.

Precise knowledge of the hour in two different

places at once—a longitude prerequisite so easily

accessible today from any pair of cheap wristwatches—

was utterly unattainable up to and including the era of

pendulum clocks. On the deck of a rolling ship, such

clocks would slow down, or speed up, or stop running

altogether. Normal changes in temperature encountered

en route from a cold country of origin to a tropical trade

zone thinned or thickened a clock’s lubricating oil and

made its metal parts expand or contract with equally

disastrous results. A rise or fall in barometric pressure,

or the subtle variations in the Earth’s gravity from one

latitude to another, could also cause a clock to gain or

lose time.

For lack of a practical method of determining lon-

gitude, every great captain in the Age of Exploration

became lost at sea despite the best available charts and

compasses. Untold numbers of sailors died when their

destinations suddenly loomed out of the sea and took

them by surprise. In a single such accident on October

22, 1707, at the Scilly Isles near the southwestern tip of

England, nearly two thousand men lost their lives.

The quest for a solution to the problem of longi-

tude persisted over four centuries and across the whole

continent of Europe. The British Parliament, in its

famed Longitude Act of 1714, set the highest bounty of

all, naming a prize equal to several million dollars in

today’s currency for a “Practicable and Useful” means

of determining longitude.

English clockmaker John Harrison, a mechanical

genius who pioneered the science of portable precision

timekeeping, devoted his life to this quest. He accom-

plished what Newton had feared impossible: He

invented a clock that would carry the true time from the

home port, like an eternal flame, to any remote corner

of the world.

With no formal education or apprenticeship to any

watchmaker, Harrison nevertheless constructed a series

of virtually friction-free clocks that required no lubrica-

tion and no cleaning, that were made from materials

impervious to rust, and that kept their moving parts per-

fectly balanced in relation to one another, regardless of

how the world pitched or tossed about them. He did

away with the pendulum, and he combined different

metals inside his works in such a way that when one

component expanded or contracted with changes in

temperature, the other counteracted the change and kept

the clock’s rate constant.

His every success, however, was parried by mem-

bers of the scientific elite, who distrusted Harrison’s

magic box. The commissioners charged with awarding

the longitude prize changed the contest rules whenever

they saw fit, so as to favor the chances of astronomers

over the likes of Harrison and his fellow “mechanics.”

But the utility and accuracy of Harrison’s approach tri-

umphed in the end. In 1773 he claimed his rightful

reward. His followers shepherded Harrison’s intricate,

exquisite invention through the design modifications

that enabled it to be mass produced and enjoy wide use.

To retrace this story in an age when a network of

satellites can nail down a ship’s position within a few

feet in just a moment or two—is to see the globe anew.

11. The function of the first paragraph in relation to the

passage as a whole is to:

A. orient the reader to the subject of longitude by

explaining how longitude is determined at sea.

B. explain the political significance of developing an

accurate way of determining longitude.

C. establish that longitude calculations are necessary

to determine time in two different places at once.

D. introduce a discussion of how knowledge of Earth’s

position relative to the Sun was gained in the

process of advances in timekeeping.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

3333

12. Which of the following best describes the way the fifth

paragraph (lines 48–54) functions in the passage as a

whole?

F. It puts into historical perspective the difficulty of

solving the longitude problem and introduces the

subject of Britain’s longitude prize.

G. It translates the technical terminology used else-

where in the passage into language that is more

widely understood.

H. It sheds light on why it took longer for a solution

to the longitude problem to emerge in Europe than

in other parts of the world.

J. It diminishes the importance of the lives that were

lost in the efforts to solve the longitude problem.

13. It can reasonably be inferred from the passage that

before Harrison’s efforts, other individuals trying to

solve the longitude problem had failed to:

A. consider clocks as the potential instrument of cal-

culation.

B. agree on why longitude decreases in value at

increasing distances from Earth’s equator.

C. improve upon the features of clocks that made

them unreliable at sea.

D. understand the ways that charts and compasses

could be used in connection with timepieces to

calculate longitude.

14. The reference to the catastrophe at Scilly (lines 45–47)

is used to illustrate the point made in the passage that:

F. charts and compasses were poorly made in the

1700s.

G. England more than other countries stood to gain

from a solution to the problem of determining lon-

gitude.

H. captains were contributing to the problem of lost

lives by resisting a solution to the problem of

determining longitude.

J. Harrison’s accomplishments addressed shortcom-

ings of navigation whose consequences were vast

in scale.

15. Information in the second paragraph (lines 17–25)

establishes that one degree of longitude translates into

a distance of:

A. sixty-eight miles at Earth’s equator but less on

either side of Earth’s equator.

B. sixty-eight miles at Earth’s equator but more on

either side of Earth’s equator.

C. one thousand miles the world over.

D. virtually nothing at Earth’s equator, increasing to a

maximum of sixty-eight miles at the poles.

16. Which of the following statements best describes the

metals used in Harrison’s clock?

F. The metals were identical so that they would

respond consistently to changes in conditions at

sea.

G. The metals were different so that their changes in

response to conditions at sea would counteract

each other.

H. The metals that remained stable in response to

temperature changes were encased in metals that

were impervious to rust.

J. The metals expanded and contracted in ways that

were counteracted by changes in the parts made of

wood.

17. The passage suggests that Harrison’s principal com-

petitors in the race to develop a means of determining

longitude were:

A. the great captains in the Age of Exploration.

B. members of the British Parliament.

C. trained clockmakers with formal educations.

D. individuals in the scientific community.

18. According to the passage, there was a delay between

the time when Harrison arrived at a solution to the

problem of longitude and when he received his reward

because his:

F. invention predated the Longitude Act of 1714.

G. clock was only one of many successful solutions

to emerge simultaneously.

H. opponents obstructed his efforts to claim the prize

money.

J. supporters abandoned him in order to exploit his

invention for their own financial gain.

19. Lines 82–84 indicate that others took over Harrison’s

work in order to:

A. secure a wider range of applications for an instru-

ment that had been used only at sea.

B. take credit for his remarkable accomplishments.

C. diminish the significance of his clock by having it

mass-produced.

D. turn his design into one that could be practically

produced for more users.

20. The passage indicates that instruments for determining

longitude now include:

F. modified pendulum clocks.

G. satellites.

H. a network of ships.

J. barometers.

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Passage III

HUMANITIES: This passage is adapted from the essay

“Albany, 1958” by Lydia Minatoya. It appeared in her book

Talking to High Monks in the Snow

This story takes place in Albany, New York.

The meter of my childhood was the rising and

plunging of a sewing machine needle: rapid and

smooth, like an endless distant drum roll. My mother

hummed as she sewed. She guided the fabric this way

and that. In 1938, she had graduated from a school of

costume design, and before World War II, she had her

own boutique in Los Angeles. It was a time when the

dream of America never seemed finer.

The Albany of my childhood was a festive place,

closer in spirit to the nineteenth century than to the

twenty-first. Italian pushcart grocers crowded southern

city blocks, crafting tiered architectural wonders from

fresh produce and pungent sausage. Heavy-legged

workhorses clopped along cobblestones, delivering

bread from German bakeries and milk from Dutch

dairies. A cable car ran along streets named for trees.

Each year in early April, an annual dinner-dance

was sponsored by the pharmaceutical institute where

my father worked as a researcher. A ballroom was

rented in a downtown hotel. Musicians were hired to

play big-band music. The dinner-dance was the only

time when my mother would sew for herself. It was the

one time when my parents went out, alone, together. I

was a romantic child, dreamy and diffuse. For me, the

dinner-dance was an annual event: looked forward to in

long anticipation and back upon with nostalgia.

Each year, on a snowy weekday evening, Father

would take us window shopping. The deserted down-

town streets would be a magical glaze of snow-softened

lights and shadowy shop displays. My mother would

linger in front of the mannequins clad in evening

apparel. I would follow along, drunk with wonder.

Each year before the tape had desiccated on the

backs of the New Year’s cards and they had fallen to

the floor, my mother would have decided on the design

for her dinner-dance dress. Then there would be a trip

to the fabric store. I would run my hands along gradu-

ated rainbows of thread spools. I would watch their

changing hues as they shimmered in the light.

As the dress took form, my parents would practice

dancing.

“Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow,” Father would

mutter with determination as he trod unmincingly on

Okaa-chan’s feet and guided her into the walls.

“Next lady?” he gallantly would inquire. My sister

Misa and I would take turns, balancing on the tops of

his shoes, as Father swept us around the room.

I always thought that Dinner-Dance Eve had some

of the magic of Christmas. Every year, I would perch

on the bathtub’s edge. I would watch my father fix his

tie. “See the nice dimple below the knot?” Father would

turn from the mirror and bend to show me. “The dimple

is very important.” I solemnly would nod—the honored

recipient of this arcane cultural wisdom.

Back in the bedroom, Okaa-chan would slide into

her new dress. She would glance at her reflection with

modest pleasure. When she moved, I could catch the

sweet scent of face powder.

When I was seven or eight, the window shopping

and the dinner-dances stopped. The granite façades of

the downtown stores were grimy with graffiti. Display

windows were boarded with plywood. The elegant

hotels had fallen into disrepair. No one danced to big-

band music anymore.

As I grew older, my mother began to sew for

wealthy women. The women lived in country homes

where sunlight, reflected from swimming pools just

beyond French doors, played across fine wood floors.

Once after a luncheon in the city, a woman came

to our house for a fitting. Standing erect in the door-

way, then bowing slightly, my mother met her formally.

“Won’t you please come in? May I please take

your coat?”

“Here you go. Try to put it somewhere clean.”

Like an eagle, her words slipped regally down a

great distance and struck with awful ease.

After the fitting, my father was ashamed and angry.

“Actually, I do not like this work,” he stormed.

“You do not have to do this; we do not need this kind of

money.” He waved his arms dismissively at Okaa-

chan’s sewing machine. “They come and look at our

home with contempt. You kneel at their hems like a ser-

vant! Mo dame desu yo! It is no good, I tell you!”

Okaa-chan was intractable. Eloquent in anger, she

blazed over the pronunciation of words that ordinarily

would have left pondering pauses in her speech. “I do

not care what they think of me, of our home. They

cannot affect our value.” My mother stepped in front of

her sewing machine, as if to shield it from scorn. “My

work gives me happiness.” She squarely faced my

father. “I do not care if you speak as Husband,” she

said. “I am a Designer!”

21. As it is described in the passage, sewing seems most

closely associated in the narrator’s mind with her

mother’s:

A. low wages.

B. compassion.

C. self-worth.

D. thriftiness.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

3333

22. It is reasonable to infer from the passage that the nar-

rator looks back on the dinner-dances as a time when:

F. her parents were in conflict over her mother’s

work.

G. the entire family was filled with excitement and

anticipation.

H. she and her father had a much easier relationship

with each other.

J. her mother and father had renewed hope for the

future of the family.

23. It is reasonable to infer that the primary reason the

author included the information in the eleventh para-

graph (lines 59–64) is to:

A. contrast it with the earlier description of the family

looking at shop displays on a snowy evening.

B. support the information about the trip to the fabric

store, which is presented earlier.

C. compare it with the scene where the father dances

with his wife and daughters.

D. contrast it with the scene presented in the last two

paragraphs (lines 78–92).

24. The primary focus of lines 65–92 is:

F. the relationship between the narrator and her

mother.

G. Okaa-chan’s strength and integrity.

H. Albany’s move toward the twenty-first century.

J. the narrator’s father’s stubbornness.

25. When the narrator says, “I solemnly would nod—the

honored recipient of this arcane cultural wisdom”

(lines 53–54), she most likely means that:

A. she felt intimidated when her father was giving her

information that she did not understand.

B. her father was honored to be able to share personal

information with his daughter.

C. when her father put on his tie, she pretended to be

honored, even though she thought his comment

was silly.

D. the information her father was giving her seemed

important and made her feel valued.

26. The sentence “Like an eagle, her words slipped regally

down a great distance and struck with awful ease”

(lines 75–76) indicates that the narrator:

F. was not sure what her mother expected of her.

G. recognized that her mother was being demeaned.

H. wanted to distance herself from her mother.

J. was ill at ease with her position in the family.

27. Information in the passage suggests that the narrator’s

father disapproves of Okaa-chan’s sewing business

primarily because it:

A. diminishes his role as a provider.

B. means more to her than he does.

C. does not generate enough income.

D. threatens his sense of dignity.

28. Based on the last two paragraphs (lines 78–92), which

of the following statements indicates what the nar-

rator’s father and mother have in common?

F. They both want control of the family finances.

G. They are both fighting for their self-respect.

H. They both want to teach a lesson to their children.

J. They are both angry at the woman who came for

the fitting.

29. The author uses the term “architectural wonders”

(line 12) to describe:

A. nineteenth-century buildings.

B. German baked goods.

C. crowded city blocks with cobblestone streets.

D. arranged layers of fruits, vegetables, and sausages.

30. Which of the following words best describes the nar-

rator’s father’s dancing as he practices for the dinner-

dance with Okaa-chan?

F. Skillful

G. Graceful

H. Clumsy

J. Indifferent

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

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Passage IV

NATURAL SCIENCE: This passage is adapted from the

Preface to neurologist Oliver Sacks’s collection of essays

Anthropologist on Mars

Nature’s imagination, as Freeman Dyson likes to

say, is richer than ours, and he speaks, marvellingly, of

this richness in the physical and biological worlds, the

endless diversity of physical forms and forms of life.

For me, as a physician, nature’s richness is to be

studied in the phenomena of health and disease, in the

endless forms of individual adaptation by which human

organisms, people, adapt and reconstruct themselves.

Defects, disorders, diseases, in this sense, can play

a paradoxical role, by bringing out latent powers,

developments, evolutions, forms of life, that might

never be seen, or even be imaginable, in their absence.

It is the paradox of disease, in this sense, its “creative”

potential, that forms the central theme of this book.

Thus while one may be horrified by the ravages of

developmental disorder or disease, one may sometimes

see them as creative too—for if they destroy particular

paths, particular ways of doing things, they may force

the nervous system into making other paths and ways,

force on it an unexpected growth and evolution. This

other side of development or disease is something I see,

potentially, in almost every patient; and it is this which

I am especially concerned to describe.

Similar considerations were brought up by A. R.

Luria, who studied the long-term survival of patients

who had cerebral tumors or had suffered brain injuries

or strokes—and the ways, the adaptations, they used to

survive. He also studied deaf and blind children as a

very young man (with his mentor L. S. Vygotsky).

Vygotsky stressed the intactness rather than the deficits

of such children:

A handicapped child represents a qualitatively dif-

ferent, unique type of development. . . . If a blind

child or a deaf child achieves the same level of

development as a normal child, then the child with

a defect achieves this in another way, by another

course, by other means;

and, for the pedagogue, it

is particularly important to know the uniqueness of

the course along which he must lead the child.

This uniqueness transforms the minus of a hand-

icap into the plus of compensation.

That such radical adaptations could occur demanded,

Luria thought, a new view of the brain, a sense of it not

as programmed and static, but rather as dynamic and

active, a supremely efficient adaptive system geared for

evolution and change, ceaselessly adapting to the needs

of the organism—its need, above all, to construct a

coherent self and world, whatever defects or disorders

of brain function befell it. That the brain is minutely

differentiated is clear: there are hundreds of tiny areas

crucial for every aspect of perception and behavior. The

miracle is how they all cooperate, are integrated

together, in the creation of a self.

This sense of the brain’s remarkable capacity for

the most striking adaptations, not least in the special

(and often desperate) circumstances of neural or sen-

sory mishap, has come to dominate my perception of

my patients and their lives. So much so, indeed, that I

am sometimes moved to wonder whether it may not be

necessary to redefine the very concepts of “health” and

“disease,” to see these in terms of the ability of the

organism to create a new organization and order, one

that fits its special, altered disposition and needs, rather

than in the terms of a rigidly defined “norm.”

Sickness implies a contraction of life, but such

contractions do not have to occur. Nearly all of my

patients, so it seems to me, whatever their problems,

reach out to life—and not only despite their conditions,

but often because of them, and even with their aid.

The study of disease, for the physician, demands

the study of identity, the inner worlds that patients,

under the spur of illness, create. But the realities of

patients, the ways in which they and their brains con-

struct their own worlds, cannot be comprehended

wholly from the observation of behavior, from the out-

side.

With this in mind, I have taken off my white coat,

deserted, by and large, the hospitals where I have spent

the last twenty-five years, to explore my subjects’ lives

as they live in the real world, feeling in part like a natu-

ralist, examining rare forms of life; in part like an

anthropologist, a neuroanthropologist, in the field—but

most of all like a physician, called here and there to

make house calls, house calls at the far borders of

human experience.

31. The quotation by L. S. Vygotsky in lines 32–41 is used

in this passage to support the idea that:

A. children with handicaps should be studied in the

same way as children defined by physicians as

“normal.”

B. deficits need to demonstrate intactness in order to

be judged acceptable.

C. neural or sensory mishap occurs in children as

well as in adults.

D. development of children with handicaps may pro-

ceed in positive yet quite distinctive ways.

32. The author of the passage refers to the work of A. R.

Luria and L. S. Vygotsky primarily to underscore the

idea that people who have:

F. disabilities or developmental disorders learn to

create new selves.

G. disabilities or developmental disorders need spe-

cial treatment.

H. unusual handicaps are qualitatively different.

J. neural mishaps have minutely differentiated brains.

ACT-59F-PRACTICE

3333

33. Lines 42–53 suggest that, prior to A. R. Luria’s research,

medical researchers had thought of the brain as:

A. dynamic.

B. unchanging.

C. paradoxical.

D. creative.

34. As it is used in line 41, the word compensation most

nearly means:

F. payment.

G. differentiation.

H. disposition.

J. adaptation.

35. The author’s main purpose in lines 54–69 is to show:

A. how he has come to think differently about the

brain.

B. why sickness often causes a contraction of life.

C. when he had made new discoveries about the

brain.

D. which of his subjects helped him redefine the term

“norm.”

36. The author of the passage makes it clear that, when it

comes to understanding the effects of a disease on an

individual patient, it is necessary for medical doctors

to:

F. adhere to established norms of human behavior in

diagnosing and treating disease.

G. quickly establish a method of treatment that will

save the patient from further suffering.

H. examine the ways that people learn to live with a

disease in their daily lives.

J. know each person’s brain is minutely differenti-

ated and responsible for the disease being studied.

37. The last paragraph suggests that the author’s main

reason for leaving the hospital to visit his patients is to

allow him to:

A. feel more like a patient than a physician.

B. become a more important part of the real world.

C. understand his patients’ illnesses better.

D. see if being a naturalist is like being a physician.

38. The paradox mentioned in the second paragraph

(lines 9–14) is best described by which of the following

statements?

F. The course of human evolution is guided by the

creative potential of the static brain.

G. Serious illness can lead directly to previously

unthought of yet productive developmental change.

H. Sickness may contract life, but in so doing it can

maintain the physical “norm” at a similar level.

J. The long-term study of disorders and diseases

brings out the creative skills of researchers.

39. As it is used in line 15, the word ravages most nearly

means:

A. paradoxical features.

B. creative adaptations.

C. fatal nature.

D. destructive actions.

40. The word miracle in line 52 refers most specifically to

the ways in which:

F. brain function disorders are cured.

G. unique handicaps are compensated for.

H. different areas of the brain work together.

J. the creative potential of disease is revealed.

END OF TEST 3

STOP! DO NOT TURN THE PAGE UNTIL TOLD TO DO SO.

DO NOT RETURN TO A PREVIOUS TEST.

SCIENCE TEST

35 Minutes—40 Questions

DIRECTIONS: There are seven passages in this test.

Each passage is followed by several questions. After

reading a passage, choose the best answer to each

question and fill in the corresponding oval on your

answer document. You may refer to the passages as

often as necessary.

You are NOT permitted to use a calculator on this test.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

444444

Passage I

Metamorphic rocks form when temperature and/or

pressure cause changes in preexisting rock. Figure 1 shows

the temperature and pressure conditions in which certain

facies (categories of metamorphic rocks) are formed.

Figure 1

Figure adapted from Sheldon Judson, Marvin Kauffman, and

L. Don Leet,

Physical Geology

A rock’s metamorphic grade (a measure of the inten-

sity of metamorphism) is classified on a scale of low (very

similar to the original rock) to high (very different from the

original rock). Table 1 lists the grades of Facies A–G from

Figure 1. Figure 2 shows characteristic minerals that may

be present in rocks of a given grade.

Table 1

Facies Metamorphic grade*

Alow

Blow

C low to medium

D low to medium

Emedium

F medium to high

Ghigh

*Metamorphic grade is a measure

of the intensity of metamorphism.

Figure 2

Figure 2 adapted from Frank Press and Raymond Siever,

Earth

low grade medium grade high grade

chlorite

muscovite

biotite

garnet

staurolite

kyanite

sillimanite

plagioclase

200

400 600

800

1,000

200

400 600

800

1,000

Facies A

Facies

Facies C

Facies D Facies E Facies F

Facies G

temperature (°C)

depth (km)

pressure (kb)

(Note: Boundaries are not actually sharp, distinct lines.)

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

444444

1. According to Figure 2, which of the following min-

erals would most typically be found only in rocks of a

medium grade?

A. Muscovite

B. Biotite

C. Kyanite

D. Plagioclase

2. According to Figure 1, a Facies G rock will most likely

form under which of the following pressure and tem-

perature conditions?

Pressure Temperature

F. 3 kb 800°C

G. 5 kb 400°C

H. 8 kb 1,000°C

J. 11 kb 600°C

3. Figure 1 indicates that as depth increases, pressure:

A. decreases only.

B. remains the same.

C. increases only.

D. increases, then decreases.

4. According to Figure 2, the presence of which of the

following minerals in a metamorphic rock would be

least helpful in determining that rock’s grade?

F. Chlorite

G. Muscovite

H. Staurolite

J. Plagioclase

5. Hornfels is a metamorphic rock formed when magma

(molten rock) heats sedimentary rocks on Earth’s sur-

face. According to Figure 1, hornfels is most likely a

member of which of the following facies?

A. Facies A

B. Facies C

C. Facies E

D. Facies G

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

444444

Passage II

In 1908, an object from outer space devastated

2,000 km

of forest in Siberia. The object was between

10 m and 100 m in diameter and traveled at a maximum

speed of 15 km/sec. It exploded at an altitude of 8 km and

released energy equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT. Two

scientists discuss whether this object was a comet or an

asteroid.

Scientist 1

The object was a comet, a body made of ices (such as

frozen water or methane) and dust. Most of this cometary

material is volatile (easily vaporized) and low in density.

Friction in Earth’s atmosphere heated the comet to a tem-

perature at which it exploded, high above the ground. The

majority of the ices and dust were vaporized in the explo-

sion, which explains why no crater was formed at the site

and why no large, identifiable fragments of the object were

found. An asteroid would not have been completely

destroyed. Intact asteroid fragments that reached the

ground would have created one or more craters upon

impact and left behind recoverable pieces. Evidence shows

that the object decelerated rapidly before it exploded.

Because of their low density, comets are capable of such

rapid deceleration, whereas high-density objects, such as

asteroids, are not.

Scientist 2

The object was a stony asteroid. As it entered Earth’s

atmosphere, its high speed created a large air pressure dif-

ference between the area just in front of the asteroid and

the area just behind the asteroid. The large pressure differ-

ence eventually exceeded the structural strength of the

asteroid. The asteroid flattened, decelerated rapidly due to

the dramatic increase in its surface area, and fragmented

before reaching the ground. This fragmentation would have

appeared like an explosion. Calculations show that a comet

between 10 m and 100 m in diameter would explode at an

altitude much higher than 8 km, but a stony asteroid of that

size would fragment at or near an altitude of 8 km.

Recovery of large asteroid fragments is difficult due to the

area’s boggy soil; however, small, glassy fragments were

recovered and are believed to be melted and resolidified

pieces of the asteroid.

6. Which of the following phrases best describes the major

point of difference between the 2 scientists’ hypotheses?

F. The location of the event

G. The speed the object was traveling

H. The density of Earth’s atmosphere

J. The type of object that entered Earth’s atmosphere

7. According to Scientist 2’s viewpoint, compared to the

altitude at which a stony asteroid would have exploded

in Earth’s atmosphere, a comet of similar size would

most likely have exploded at:

A. the same altitude.

B. a higher altitude.

C. a slightly lower altitude.

D. a much lower altitude.

8. Scientist 1’s viewpoint indicates that when the mate-

rials that compose most of a comet are sufficiently

heated, they change to:

F. solids.

G. gases.

H. liquids.

J. a vacuum.

9. Which of the following statements best describes how

Scientist 2 would explain why no large, identifiable

fragments of the object have been recovered?

A. Any large, identifiable fragments that reached the

ground have been removed from the area by ero-

sion.

B. Any large, identifiable fragments were thrown

hundreds of kilometers from the site.

C. No large, identifiable fragments of the object

reached the ground.

D. No large, identifiable fragments of the object have

been recovered due to the soil conditions in the

area.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

444444

10. How would the behavior of the asteroid differ from

that described in Scientist 2’s viewpoint if the asteroid

had not been flattened by the air pressure difference?

The asteroid would:

F. not have entered Earth’s atmosphere.

G. have struck another planet in the solar system.

H. have decelerated more gradually.

J. have frozen.

11. Which of the following statements would both scien-

tists most likely use to explain the damage to the forest

caused by the object’s explosion? Energy from the

explosion:

A. traveled rapidly down to Earth’s surface.

B. dissipated in the upper atmosphere.

C. was released less than 1 km above Earth’s surface.

D. was released as the object struck Earth’s surface.

12. Scientist 1’s viewpoint would be weakened by which

of the following observations about comets, if true?

F. Comets are composed mainly of frozen materials.

G. Comets are much larger than 100 m in diameter.

H. Comets often pass close enough to Earth to inter-

sect Earth’s atmosphere.

J. Comets orbit the Sun.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

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Passage III

The seeds of some plants attract ants with a nutritious

structure called an elaiosome. The ants carry the seeds to

their nests, eat the elaiosomes, and then leave the seeds in a

waste pile, where some seeds germinate (begin to grow).

Three studies were conducted to examine this process.

Study 1

For 2 plant species (A and B), seed mass per seed

in milligrams (mg), elaiosome mass per seed (mg), and

percentage of seed mass composed of elaiosome were

recorded (see Table 1).

Table 1

Percentage

Seed Elaiosome of seed mass

mass mass per composed

Species (mg) seed (mg) of elaiosome

A 6.8 0.420 6.2

B 14.9 0.924 6.2

Study 2

Three study sites were established in order to deter-

mine the rate of seed collection by a single species of ant

for the plants used in Study 1. In Site 1, Species A plants

were absent; in Site 2, Species B plants were absent. Both

plants were absent in Site 3.

Two seed dishes were placed in each site: 1 con-

taining 20 Species A seeds and 1 containing 20 Species B

seeds. The dishes were left out for 48 hours and the number

of seeds taken from each dish was recorded. The results

appear in Table 2.

Table 2

Number of seeds removed

Plant from seed dishes containing:

species

Site absent Species A Species B

1A 13 3

2B 2 12

3 A and B 8 9

Tables 1 and 2 adapted from Brent H. Smith et al., “Frequency-

Dependent Seed Dispersal by Ants of Two Deciduous Forest

Study 3

The researchers planted 2,550 seeds from a third

species, Species C. They also observed 2,550 Species C

seeds that were planted by ants in similar environments.

All seeds were observed for 2 years. Table 3 presents the

results.

Table 3

Results from:

hand- ant-

planted planted

Maturation of Species C seeds seeds seeds

Seeds that germinated 26 39

Plants alive after 1 year 9 20

Plants alive after 2 years 4 13

Seeds produced per plant after 2 years 2,187 2,163

Table 3 adapted from Frances M. Hanzawa, Andrew J. Beattie,

and David C. Culver, “Directed Dispersal: Demographic Analysis of

13. Based on the results of Study 3, one could generalize

that compared to hand-planting of seeds, ant-planting

of seeds results in:

A. increased seed germination.

B. increased seed production per plant.

C. decreased plant survival after 1 year.

D. decreased plant survival after 2 years.

14. Which of the following variables was controlled in the

design of Study 2 ?

F. The number of ants in each site

G. The number of seed dishes placed in each site

H. The mass of the elaiosome of each seed

J. The type of seeds taken by the ants in each site

15. According to the results of the studies, Species A and

Species B are most similar in that their:

A. seed masses are the same.

B. germination rates on ant waste piles are the same.

C. percentages of elaiosome mass per seed are the

same.

D. rates of production of seeds after 1 year are the

same.

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

444444

16. In Study 2, Site 3 was used to study the:

F. preference of a different ant species for the seeds

of both plant species.

G. seed preference of ants in an area in which both

plant species were absent.

H. growth and survival of both plant species in an

area where ants were not present.

J. effects of elaiosome mass on the seed preference

of ants.

17. Which of the following is a weakness of the design of

Study 2 ?

A. Some plants were not present at each site.

B. Some seeds were not present at each site.

C. The seeds may have been removed from the dishes

by animals other than ants.

D. The plants may have been eaten by animals other

than ants.

18. The results of Study 2 suggest that which of the fol-

lowing factors most affects the seed preference of

ants?

F. Seed mass

G. Elaiosome mass

H. Percentage of seed mass composed of elaiosome

J. Abundance of a plant in a given area

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

444444

Passage IV

Some students conducted experiments using different

brands of adhesive tape, one kind each of paper and plastic,

a board, and a spring scale.

Experiment 1

A student stuck one end of a piece of tape onto the

edge of a board that was wrapped with paper. The other

end of the tape was clamped to a spring scale, as shown in

Figure 1.

Figure 1

While one student held the board, a second student pulled

the spring scale until the tape came off the paper wrapping;

a third student recorded the force in newtons, N, indicated

on the spring scale at the moment the tape came off the

paper wrapping.

The procedure was repeated for 3 different brands of

tape; each brand of tape came in many different widths, of

which 2 or 3 were tested. The results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Force (N) to remove tape:

Tape Tape width

brand (cm) Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average

1.0 1.6 1.9 2.2 1.9

X 2.0 3.9 3.7 4.1 3.9

3.0 6.0 5.6 5.8 5.8

2.0 4.0 4.5 4.3 4.3

2.5 5.4 5.1 5.7 5.4

1.0 2.2 1.6 1.8 1.9

2.0 4.1 3.9 3.6 3.9

Experiment 2

The students performed an experiment similar to

Experiment 1, except that the paper wrapping was replaced

by a plastic wrapping. The results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2

Force (N) to remove tape:

Tape Tape width

brand (cm) Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average

1.0 1.7 1.5 1.6 1.6

X 2.0 3.2 3.2 3.3 3.2

3.0 5.0 5.0 5.1 5.0

2.0 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.3

2.5 5.5 5.4 5.4 5.4

Z 1.5 2.8 2.8 2.9 2.8

19. The results of the 2 experiments support the conclu-

sion that, for a given brand of tape, as the tape’s width

increases, the force required to remove the tape from a

given wrapping:

A. increases only.

B. decreases only.

C. remains constant.

D. varies, but with no particular trend.

20. In Experiment 2, had Brand X tape in a 4.0 cm width

been tested, the force required to remove the tape from

the plastic wrapping would have been closest to:

F. 5.0 N.

G. 7.0 N.

H. 9.0 N.

J. 11.0 N.

21. Based on the average results of Experiments 1 and 2,

which of the following brands of tape adhered better to

the paper than to the plastic?

A. Brand X

B. Brand Y

C. Brands X and Y

D. Brands Y and Z

clamp

spring scale

tape

wrapped board

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

444444

22. Which brand(s) of tape was/were used at only 2 dif-

ferent widths in both experiments?

F. Brand X only

G. Brand Y only

H. Brand Z only

J. Brands Y and Z only

23. For the students to determine the force required to

remove tape from a wrapping, which of the following

attractive forces had to exceed the adhesive force

between the tape and the wrapping?

A. The force between the clamp and the tape

B. The force between the clamp and the paper or

plastic wrapping

C. The force between the Earth and the wrapping

D. The force between the Earth and the tape

24. The students’ instructor gave them a strip of tape that

was 2.5 cm wide and asked them to identify the brand.

The students repeated the procedures from Experi-

ments 1 and 2 using the tape and obtained average

forces of 4.9 N for paper and 4.1 N for plastic. Which

of the following brands would most likely have pro-

duced these results?

F. Brand X only

G. Brand Y only

H. Brands X and Y only

J. Brands Y and Z only

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

444444

Passage V

Researchers conducted an experiment to determine the

factors affecting heat flow. In each trial, one or more

blocks of a particular material was (were) placed between

two walls at constant temperatures T

and T

in one of the

configurations shown in Figure 1. Heat was transferred

through the block(s) from the hotter wall to the cooler wall.

This heat flow, measured in joules per second (J/sec), is

shown in Table 1.

(Note: All blocks used in the experiment were identical in

size and shape. In each configuration, the contact area was

the surface area of the end of the block(s) against one

wall.)

Figure 1

Table 1

Heat

Block T

flow

Trial material Configuration (°C) (°C) (J/sec)

1 glass wool A 50 20 0.025

2 glass wool B 50 20 0.050

3 glass wool C 50 20 0.013

4 glass wool D 50 20 0.025

5 glass wool A 100 70 0.025

6 glass wool A 20 50 0.025

7 wood A 50 20 0.072

8 brick A 50 20 0.500

9 concrete A 50 20 0.540

10 steel A 50 20 31

11 aluminum A 50 20 140

12 aluminum A 60 20 190

13 aluminum A 70 20 240

25. According to the information provided, heat flowed

from the wall at temperature T

to the wall at tempera-

ture T

in which trial?

A. Trial 4

B. Trial 6

C. Trial 10

D. Trial 12

26. Insulators are materials that are poor heat conductors.

According to Trials 7 through 10, a wall of a given

thickness built of which of the following materials

would provide the best insulation between a room and

the outdoors?

F. Wood

G. Brick

H. Concrete

J. Steel

27. The results of Trials 1 and 5 are consistent with the

hypothesis that heat flow from a hotter wall to a cooler

wall is dependent on the:

A. temperature of the hotter wall only.

B. temperature of the cooler wall only.

C. sum of the wall temperatures.

D. difference between the wall temperatures.

28. Materials differ in their thermal conductivities: the

higher the thermal conductivity, the greater the heat

flow through the material. According to Trials 6

through 11, which of the following statements about

relative thermal conductivities is NOT true?

F. Brick has a higher thermal conductivity than glass

wool.

G. Brick has a higher thermal conductivity than wood.

H. Steel has a higher thermal conductivity than alu-

minum.

J. Steel has a higher thermal conductivity than con-

crete.

block

distance

between walls

walls

Configuration A Configuration B

distance

between walls

blockblock

walls walls

Configuration C Configuration D

distance

between walls

distance

between walls

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

444444

29. Trials 1 and 3 provide evidence that heat flow depends

on which of the following factors?

A. Distance between walls

B. Contact area

C. Temperature of the hotter wall

D. Temperature of the cooler wall

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

4444444444

Passage VI

Flameless ration heaters (FRHs) are used by combat

soldiers to heat their meals in the field. The heat is pro-

duced when magnesium reacts with water:

Mg(s) + 2H

O(l) → Mg(OH)

(s) + H

(g) + heat

The rate of the reaction increases in the presence of iron

(Fe) and sodium chloride (NaCl). The following experi-

ments were done to determine how to design FRHs.

Experiment 1

A 1.0-mole (mol) piece of Mg ribbon, 0.10 mol of Fe

powder, and 0.10 mol of NaCl were added to 25 mL of

O at 20°C in an insulated container. The mixture was

stirred constantly and its temperature was measured every

50 sec. The experiment was repeated with Mg ribbon cut

into 100 pieces and with Mg powder (see Figure 1).

Figure 1

Experiment 2

Powdered Mg (0.10 mol) was mixed with 0.10 mol of

NaCl. The mixture was added to 100 mL of H

O at 20°C in

an insulated container. The mixture was stirred constantly

and the maximum temperature increase that occurred

within 15 min was recorded. The procedure was repeated

with different amounts of Fe powder added to each mixture

(see Table 1).

Table 1

Maximum temperature

Fe added increase

(mol) (°C)

0.10 23

0.20 34

0.30 44

0.40 55

0.50 66

0.60 66

0.70 66

Experiment 3

Powdered Mg (0.10 mol) was mixed with 0.50 mol of

Fe powder and added to 100 mL of H

O at 20°C in an insu-

lated container. The mixture was stirred constantly and the

maximum temperature increase that occurred within

15 min was recorded. The procedure was repeated with dif-

ferent amounts of NaCl (see Table 2).

Table 2

NaCl Maximum temperature

added increase

(mol) (°C)

0.025 19

0.050 34

0.075 50

0.100 66

0.125 82*

*Solution was boiling.

100

time (sec)

temperature (°C)

50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400

Key

1 mol Mg powder

1 mol Mg ribbon cut into 100 pieces

1 mol Mg ribbon

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

4444444444

30. Which of the following is the most likely reason that

amounts greater than 0.125 mol of NaCl were not

tested in Experiment 3 ? The results showed that:

F. adding more NaCl no longer increased the reaction

rate.

G. adding more NaCl would decrease the reaction

rate.

H. the boiling point was reached, so no further data

could be gathered with this procedure.

J. more Fe would need to be added for any greater

increase in temperature to occur.

31. Based on the results of Experiment 3, one can reason-

ably conclude that as the amount of NaCl added

increased from 0 mol to 0.100 mol, the maximum rise

in temperature within 15 min of the start of the reac-

tion:

A. increased only.

B. increased, then stayed the same.

C. decreased only.

D. decreased, then stayed the same.

32. If a trial had been done in Experiment 3 with 0.060 mol

of NaCl added, the maximum temperature increase of

the mixture that would have occurred within 15 min

would have been closest to:

F. 34°C.

G. 42°C.

H. 50°C.

J. 62°C.

33. Which of the following factors affecting the reaction

of Mg and H

O was studied in Experiment 1, but not in

Experiments 2 or 3 ?

A. Reaction temperature

B. Addition of NaCl

C. Addition of Fe

D. Surface area of Mg

34. An engineer is designing an FRH, to be used with

100 mL of H

O, that will most rapidly generate the

greatest amount of heat with the least amount of mate-

rials. Based on the results of Experiments 1, 2, and 3,

which of the following specifications should she

choose?

F. 0.50 mol Fe powder, 0.125 mol NaCl, and 0.10 mol

of Mg powder

G. 0.50 mol Fe powder, 0.125 mol NaCl, and 0.10 mol

of Mg ribbon

H. 0.70 mol Fe powder, 0.125 mol NaCl, and 0.10 mol

of Mg powder

J. 0.70 mol Fe powder, 0.125 mol NaCl, and 0.10 mol

of Mg ribbon

35. It has been observed that as Mg and H

O react, the

Mg(OH)

(magnesium hydroxide) that is produced

forms an unreactive coating on the Mg surface. Which

of the following models for why NaCl speeds up the

reaction is most consistent with this observation and

the results of the experiments?

A. NaCl absorbs heat produced in the reaction, causing

the Mg(OH)

to melt off of the Mg surface.

B. NaCl binds with Fe to inhibit the reaction of Mg

with H

C. NaCl reacts with Mg(OH)

to form a stronger bar-

rier against H

D. NaCl reacts with Mg(OH)

, removing the coating

from the Mg, allowing more contact with H

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ACT-59F-PRACTICE

4444444444

Passage VII

Enzymes are large protein molecules that increase the

rate of chemical reactions in living systems. The substrate

is the substance that interacts with the enzyme in a reac-

tion. The acceleration factor is the factor by which the

enzyme increases the rate of a reaction. Figures 1–3 show

the effects that changes in temperature, pH, and substrate

concentration have on the rate of reaction of a substrate

when Enzymes A and B are present. Figure 4 shows the

effects that changes in the concentrations of Enzymes A

and B have on the rates of reaction in substrate solutions of

the same concentration.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figures adapted from Carl M. Raab,

Reviewing Biology

Amsco School Publications, Inc.

36. According to Figure 2, Enzyme A has the fastest rate

of reaction at a pH closest to:

F. 5.

G. 6.

H. 8.

J. 9.

37. Based on the data in Figure 2, at which of the fol-

lowing pHs, if any, do Enzymes A and B have the

same acceleration factor?

A. At pH 5 only

B. At pH 6.7 only

C. At all pHs between 2 and 11

D. At none of the pHs shown in the figure

acceleration factor

enzyme concentration (mg/mL)

(initial substrate concentration constant)

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5 0.6 0.7

substrate concentration

(enzyme concentration constant)

acceleration factor

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

acceleration factor

neutral

more acidic

less acidic

50 60

temperature (°C)

acceleration factor

ACT-59F-PRACTICE

4444444444

38. A scientist claims that the acceleration factor of

Enzyme B is dependent on both enzyme and substrate

concentration. Do the data in Figures 3 and 4 support

her claim?

F. No; the acceleration factor is dependent on enzyme

concentration, but not on substrate concentration.

G. No; the acceleration factor is not dependent on

either enzyme or substrate concentration.

H. Yes; the acceleration factor is dependent on

enzyme concentration, but not on substrate con-

centration.

J. Yes; the acceleration factor is dependent on both

enzyme and substrate concentration.

39. A scientist claims that for the conditions used to obtain

the data for Figure 4, the acceleration factor of

Enzyme B at a given concentration will always be

greater than that of Enzyme A at the same concentra-

tion. Do the data support his conclusion?

A. No; Enzyme B shows a lower acceleration factor

at all the enzyme concentrations tested.

B. No; Enzyme B shows a lower acceleration factor

at all the substrate concentrations tested.

C. Yes; Enzyme B shows a higher acceleration factor

at all the enzyme concentrations tested.

D. Yes; Enzyme B shows a higher acceleration factor

at all the substrate concentrations tested.

40. The figure below shows the relative acceleration fac-

tors for pepsin, an enzyme found in the stomach, and

trypsin, an enzyme found in the small intestine.

Based on this figure and Figure 2, one would best con-

clude that compared to the acidity of solutions in the

stomach, the solutions in the small intestine are:

F. more acidic.

G. less acidic.

H. equally acidic.

J. less acidic for pepsin, but more acidic for trypsin.

acceleration factor

pepsin

trypsin

10 12

END OF TEST 4

STOP! DO NOT RETURN TO ANY OTHER TEST.

Note: If you plan to take the ACT Writing Test, take a short break and then

continue testing on page 57.

If you do not plan to take the ACT Writing Test, turn to page 59 for instructions

on scoring your multiple-choice tests.

NOTE: This booklet is covered by Federal copyright laws that prohibit the

reproduction of the test questions without the express, written permission of ACT, Inc.

P.O. BOX 168

IOWA CITY, IA 52243-0168

Your Social Security Number

or ACT ID Number:

Your Signature (do not print): ______________________________________________

Print Your Name Here: ______________________________________________

For m 03A

DIRECTIONS

This is a test of your writing skills. You will have thirty (30) minutes to write an

essay in English. Before you begin planning and writing your essay, read the

writing prompt carefully to understand exactly what you are being asked to do.

Your essay will be evaluated on the evidence it provides of your ability to

express judgments by taking a position on the issue in the writing prompt; to

maintain a focus on the topic throughout the essay; to develop a position by

using logical reasoning and by supporting your ideas; to organize ideas in a

logical way; and to use language clearly and effectively according to the

conventions of standard written English.

You may use the unlined pages in this test booklet to plan your essay. These

pages will not be scored. You must write your essay in pencil on the lined pages

in the answer folder. Your writing on those lined pages will be scored. You may

not need all the lined pages, but to ensure you have enough room to finish, do

NOT skip lines. You may write corrections or additions neatly between the lines

of your essay, but do NOT write in the margins of the lined pages. Illegible

essays cannot be scored, so you must write (or print) clearly.

If you finish before time is called, you may review your work. Lay your pencil

down immediately when time is called.

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

ACT Assessment

Writing Test Booklet

Practice Writing Test

630482

ACT Assessment Writing Test Prompt

In some high schools, many teachers and parents

have encouraged the school to adopt a dress code

that sets guidelines for what students can wear in

the school building. Some teachers and parents

support a dress code because they think it will

improve the learning environment in the school.

Other teachers and parents do not support a dress

code because they think it restricts the individual

student’s freedom of expression. In your opinion,

should high schools adopt dress codes for

students?

In your essay, take a position on this question. You

may write about either one of the two points of

view given, or you may present a different point of

view on this question. Use specific reasons and

examples to support your position.

Note

• Your actual test booklet will have blank space for you to plan your

essay. For this practice test, you can use scratch paper.

• You may wish to remove pages 75–78 to respond to this Writing

Test prompt.

• When you have finished, read pages 66–72 for information and

instructions on scoring your practice essay.

ACT-03A-PRACTICE

Scoring Your Practice Tests

How to Score the Multiple-Choice Tests

Follow the instructions below and on the following pages

to score the multiple-choice portions of the practice test and

to review your performance.

Raw Scores

The number of questions you answered correctly on

each test and in each subscore area is your raw score.

Because there are many forms of the ACT, each containing

different questions, some forms will be slightly easier (and

some slightly harder) than others. A raw score of 67 on one

form of the English Test, for example, may be about as diffi-

cult to earn as a raw score of 70 on another form of that test.

To compute your raw scores, check your answers with

the scoring keys on pages 60–62. Count the number of cor-

rect answers for each of the four tests and seven subscore

areas, and enter the number in the blanks provided on those

pages. These numbers are your raw scores on the tests and

subscore areas.

Scale Scores

To adjust for the small differences that occur among

different forms of the ACT, the raw scores for tests and sub-

score areas are converted into

scale scores.

Scale scores

are printed on the reports sent to you and your college and

scholarship choices.

When your raw scores are converted into scale scores,

it becomes possible to compare your scores with those of

examinees who completed different test forms. For example,

a scale score of 26 on the English Test has the same mean-

ing regardless of the form of the ACT on which it is based.

To determine the scale scores corresponding to your raw

scores on the practice test, use the score conversion tables

on pages 63–64. Table 1 on page 63 shows the raw-to-scale

score conversions for the total tests, and Table 2 on page 64

shows the raw-to-scale score conversions for the subscore

areas. Because each form of the ACT is unique, each form

has somewhat different conversion tables. Consequently,

these tables provide only approximations of the raw-to-scale

score conversions that would apply if a different form of the

ACT were taken. Therefore, the scale scores obtained from

the practice test would not be expected to match precisely the

scale scores received from a national administration of the

ACT.

Computing the Composite Score

The Composite score is the average of the four scale

scores in English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science. If you

left any of these tests blank, a Composite score cannot be

calculated. If you take the ACT Plus Writing, your Writing Test

results do not affect your Composite score.

Percent At or Below

Even scale scores don’t tell the whole story of your test

performance. You may want to know how your scores com-

pare to the scores of other students who take the ACT.

The norms table (Table 3 on page 65) enables you to

compare your scores on the sample test with the scores of

recent high school graduates who tested as sophomores,

juniors, or seniors. The numbers reported in Table 3 are

cumulative percents. A cumulative percent is the percent of

students who scored

below

a given score. For example,

a Composite score of 20 has a cumulative percent of 50.

This means that 50% of the ACT-tested high school students

had a Composite score of 20 or lower.

Remember that your scores and percent at or below on

the practice test are only

estimates

of the scores that you will

obtain on an actual form of the ACT. Test scores are only

one indicator of your level of academic knowledge and skills.

Consider your scores in connection with your grades, your

performance in outside activities, and your career interests.

College Readiness Standards

To add to the information you receive about your perfor-

mance on the ACT, we have developed College Readiness

Standards. These Standards help you to more fully under-

stand what your total test score means for each academic

area assessed: English, Mathematics, Reading, Science, and

Writing. The College Readiness Standards describe the types

of skills, strategies, and understandings you will need to

make a successful transition from high school to college.

Standards are provided for six score ranges that reflect the

progression and complexity of skills in the academic areas

measured in the ACT tests. The College Readiness Stan-

dards can be found at www.act.org/standards.

Reviewing Your Performance on the

Practice Multiple-Choice Tests

After you have determined your scale scores, consider

the following as you evaluate how you did on the multiple-

choice portions of the practice test.

• Did you run out of time before you completed a test? If so,

reread the information in this booklet on pacing yourself. Per-

haps you need to adjust the way you used your time in

responding to the questions. It is to your advantage to

answer every question and pace yourself so that you can do

so. Remember there is no penalty for guessing.

• Did you spend too much time trying to understand the

directions to the tests? If so, read the directions for each test

again thoroughly. The directions in the practice test are

exactly like the directions that will appear in your test booklet

on the test day. Make sure you understand them now, so

you won’t have to spend too much time studying them when

you take the actual test.

• Review the questions that you missed. Did you select a

response that was an incomplete answer or that did not

directly respond to the question being asked? Try to figure

out what you overlooked in answering the questions.

• Did a particular type of question confuse you? Did the

questions you missed come from a particular subscore

area? In reviewing your responses to the practice test, check

to see whether a particular type of question or a particular

subscore area was more difficult for you or took more of your

time.

Scoring Keys for the ACT Practice Test

Use the scoring key for each test to score your answer document for the multiple-choice tests. Mark a “1”

in the blank for each question you answered correctly. Add up the numbers in each subscore area and enter

the total number correct for each subscore area in the blanks provided. Also enter the total number correct for

each test in the blanks provided. The total number correct for each test is the sum of the number correct in

each subscore area.

Test 1: English—Scoring Key

Subscore

Area*

Key UM RH

1. B _______

2. F _______

3. D _______

4. G _______

5. B _______

6. J _______

7. A _______

8. G _______

9. C _______

10. H _______

11. D _______

12. G _______

13. A _______

14. H _______

15. C _______

16. F _______

17. C _______

18. G _______

19. A _______

20. J _______

21. D _______

22. H _______

23. C _______

24. F _______

25. B _______

Subscore

Area*

Key UM RH

26. J _______

27. A _______

28. J _______

29. C _______

30. F _______

31. D _______

32. F _______

33. B _______

34. J _______

35. C _______

36. H _______

37. A _______

38. J _______

39. D _______

40. G _______

41. C _______

42. F _______

43. D _______

44. F _______

45. D _______

46. G _______

47. C _______

48. F _______

49. B _______

50. F _______

Subscore

Area*

Key UM RH

51. C _______

52. J _______

53. A _______

54. F _______

55. A _______

56. J _______

57. C _______

58. G _______

59. C _______

60. J _______

61. A _______

62. G _______

63. C _______

64. G _______

65. A _______

66. H _______

67. D _______

68. H _______

69. B _______

70. F _______

71. A _______

72. J _______

73. B _______

74. G _______

75. C _______

Number Correct (Raw Score) for:

Usage/Mechanics (UM) Subscore Area

_______

(40)

Rhetorical Skills (RH) Subscore Area

_______

(35)

Total Number Correct for English Test (UM + RH)

_______

(75)

* UM = Usage/Mechanics

RH = Rhetorical Skills

0359F

Test 2: Mathematics—Scoring Key

Subscore

Area*

Key EA AG GT

1. B _______

2. J _______

3. B _______

4. G _______

5. C _______

6. F _______

7. B _______

8. H _______

9. C _______

10. F _______

11. B _______

12. G _______

13. E _______

14. H _______

15. D _______

16. G _______

17. D _______

18. G _______

19. D _______

20. F _______

21. C _______

22. G _______

23. C _______

24. K _______

25. A _______

26. K _______

27. A _______

28. G _______

29. C _______

30. J _______

Subscore

Area*

Key EA AG GT

31. D _______

32. G _______

33. D _______

34. K _______

35. A _______

36. F _______

37. D _______

38. G _______

39. A _______

40. F _______

41. C _______

42. H _______

43. D _______

44. G _______

45. B _______

46. J _______

47. E _______

48. K _______

49. A _______

50. F _______

51. D _______

52. H _______

53. D _______

54. K _______

55. C _______

56. K _______

57. E _______

58. K _______

59. E _______

60. K _______

Number Correct (Raw Score) for:

Pre-Alg./Elem. Alg. (EA) Subscore Area

_______

(24)

Inter. Alg./Coord. Geo. (AG) Subscore Area

_______

(18)

Plane Geo./Trig. (GT) Subscore Area

_______

(18)

Total Number Correct for Math Test (EA + AG + GT)

_______

(60)

* EA = Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra

AG = Intermediate Algebra/Coordinate Geometry

GT = Plane Geometry/Trigonometry

0359F

Test 3: Reading—Scoring Key

Subscore

Area*

Key SS AL

1. D _______

2. F _______

3. C _______

4. G _______

5. A _______

6. H _______

7. A _______

8. G _______

9. B _______

10. H _______

11. A _______

12. F _______

13. C _______

14. J _______

Subscore

Area*

Key SS AL

15. A _______

16. G _______

17. D _______

18. H _______

19. D _______

20. G _______

21. C _______

22. G _______

23. A _______

24. G _______

25. D _______

26. G _______

27. D _______

28. G _______

Subscore

Area*

Key SS AL

29. D _______

30. H _______

31. D _______

32. F _______

33. B _______

34. J _______

35. A _______

36. H _______

37. C _______

38. G _______

39. D _______

40. H _______

Number Correct (Raw Score) for:

Social Studies/Sciences (SS) Subscore Area

_______

(20)

Arts/Literature (AL) Subscore Area

_______

(20)

Total Number Correct for Reading Test (SS + AL)

_______

(40)

* SS = Social Studies/Sciences

AL = Arts/Literature

Test 4: Science—Scoring Key

Key

1. C _______

2. J _______

3. C _______

4. J _______

5. A _______

6. J _______

7. B _______

8. G _______

9. D _______

10. H _______

11. A _______

12. G _______

13. A _______

14. G _______

Key

15. C _______

16. G _______

17. C _______

18. J _______

19. A _______

20. G _______

21. A _______

22. G _______

23. A _______

24. F _______

25. B _______

26. F _______

27. D _______

28. H _______

Key

29. A _______

30. H _______

31. A _______

32. G _______

33. D _______

34. F _______

35. D _______

36. F _______

37. B _______

38. J _______

39. A _______

40. G _______

Number Correct (Raw Score) for:

Total Number Correct for Science Test

_______

(40)

0359F

On each of the four multiple-choice tests on which you

marked any responses, the total number of correct

responses yields a raw score. Use the table below to convert

your raw scores to scale scores. For each test, locate and

circle your raw score or the range of raw scores that includes

it in the table below. Then, read across to either outside col-

umn of the table and circle the scale score that corresponds

to that raw score. As you determine your scale scores, enter

them in the blanks provided on the right. The highest possi-

ble scale score for each test is 36. The lowest possible scale

score for any test on which you marked any response is 1.

Next, compute the Composite score by averaging the

four scale scores. To do this, add your four scale scores and

divide the sum by 4. If the resulting number ends in a frac-

tion, round it off to the nearest whole number. (Round down

any fraction less than one-half; round up any fraction that is

one-half or more.) Enter this number in the blank. This is

your Composite score. The highest possible Composite

score is 36. The lowest possible Composite score is 1.

Your Scale Score

English _______________

Mathematics _______________

Reading _______________

Science _______________

Sum of scores _______________

Composite score (sum ÷ 4) _______________

NOTE: If you left a test completely blank and marked no

items, do not list a scale score for that test. If any test was

completely blank, do not calculate a Composite score.

TABLE 1

Procedures Used to Obtain Scale Scores

From Raw Scores for the ACT Practice Test

Raw Scores

Scale Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Scale

Score English Mathematics Reading Science Score

0359F

68-69

65-66

63-64

61-62

58-60

56-57

54-55

52-53

49-51

46-48

43-45

40-42

38-39

36-37

33-35

30-32

28-29

26-27

24-25

21-23

18-20

15-17

12-14

10-11

08-09

06-07

04-05

02-03

00-01

55-56

52-53

50-51

48-49

45-47

43-44

41-42

38-40

36-37

34-35

32-33

30-31

28-29

25-27

21-24

18-20

15-17

12-14

09-11

07-08

—

32-33

28-29

25-26

21-22

15-16

12-13

10-11

08-09

—

31-32

28-29

25-26

23-24

21-22

19-20

17-18

15-16

11-12

07-08

—

Raw Scores

Test 1 English Test 2 Mathematics Test 3 Reading

Scale Usage/ Rhetorical Pre-Algebra/ Inter. Algebra/ Plane Geometry/ Social Studies/ Arts/ Scale

Subscore Mechanics Skills Elem. Algebra Coord. Geometry Trigonometry Sciences Literature Subscore

Procedures Used to Obtain Scale Subscores

From Raw Scores for the ACT Practice Test

For each of the seven subscore areas, the total number of correct

responses yields a raw score. Use the table below to convert your raw

score to scale subscores. For each of the seven subscore areas, locate

and circle either the raw score or the range of raw scores that includes it

in the table below. Then, read across to either outside column of the

table and circle the scale subscore that corresponds to that raw score.

As you determine your scale subscores, enter them in the blanks pro-

vided on the right. The highest possible scale subscore is 18. The lowest

possible scale subscore is 1.

If you left a test completely blank and marked no items, do not list

any scale subscores for that test.

Your Scale Subscore

English

Usage/Mechanics (UM) _______________

Rhetorical Skills (RH) _______________

Mathematics

Pre-Algebra/Elem. Algebra (EA) _______________

Inter. Algebra/Coord. Geometry (AG) _______________

Plane Geometry/Trigonometry (GT) _______________

Reading

Social Studies/Sciences (SS) _______________

Arts/Literature (AL) _______________

TABLE 2

0359F

39-40

36-37

34-35

31-32

28-29

25-27

23-24

21-22

19-20

16-18

14-15

11-13

08-10

05-07

00-04

31-32

29-30

27-28

25-26

22-24

20-21

17-19

15-16

12-14

09-10

06-08

04-05

02-03

00-01

20-21

15-16

13-14

10-11

07-09

04-05

13-14

10-11

07-08

—

16-17

13-14

10-11

07-08

05-06

—

18-19

14-15

10-11

06-07

—

07-08

05-06

01-02

Use the norms table below to determine your estimated

percent at or below for each of your multiple-choice scale

scores.

In the far left column, circle your scale score for the

English Test (from page 63). Then read across to the per-

cent at or below column for that test; circle or put a check

mark beside the corresponding percent at or below. Use the

same procedure for each test (from page 63) and subscore

area (from page 64). You may find it easier to use the right

column of scale scores for your Science Test and Composite

scores.

As you mark your percents at or below, enter them in

the blanks provided at the right.

You may also find it helpful to compare your perfor-

mance with the national mean (average) score for each of

the four tests, subscore areas, and the Composite as shown

at the bottom of the norms table.

Your Estimated

Percent At or Below

on Practice Test

English __________

Usage/Mechanics __________

Rhetorical Skills __________

Mathematics __________

Pre-Algebra/Elem. Alg. __________

Alg./Coord. Geometry __________

Plane Geometry/Trig. __________

Reading __________

Soc. Studies/Sciences __________

Arts/Literature __________

Science __________

Composite __________

TABLE 3

Norms Table

National Distributions of “Percent At or Below” for ACT Test Scores

ACT-Tested High School Graduates of 2002, 2003, and 2004.

Score

ENGLISH

Usage/Mechanics

Rhetorical Skills

MATHEMATICS

Pre-Algebra/Elem. Alg.

Alg./Coord. Geometry

Plane Geometry/Trig.

READING

Soc. Studies/Sciences

Arts/Literature

SCIENCE

COMPOSITE

Score

36 99 99 99 99 99 36

35 99 99 99 99 99 35

34 99 99 98 99 99 34

33 99 99 97 99 99 33

32 98 98 96 99 99 32

31 97 97 94 98 98 31

30 95 96 92 97 97 30

29 93 95 90 96 95 29

28 91 92 87 95 93 28

27 88 89 83 93 90 27

26 85 85 79 90 86 26

25 81 81 75 86 82 25

24 76 76 70 80 77 24

23 71 70 65 74 71 23

22 66 65 60 66 64 22

21 60 60 53 58 57 21

20 53 55 48 49 50 20

19 46 50 42 40 42 19

18 39 99 99 43 99 99 99 36 99 99 30 34 18

17 33 98 99 34 97 99 99 31 99 97 22 27 17

16 27 95 98 25 94 98 99 26 94 91 16 20 16

15 22 90 95 15 89 97 96 21 89 86 12 14 15

14 16 85 89 08 83 93 91 16 83 79 08 09 14

13 12 79 82 03 76 86 84 11 75 73 05 05 13

12 09 74 75 01 68 79 75 06 68 65 03 02 12

11 07 66 64 01 59 68 65 03 60 56 02 01 11

10 04 56 52 01 49 55 53 01 51 47 01 01 10

09 03 45 39 01 41 41 38 01 38 38 01 01 09

08 02 36 26 01 31 27 25 01 28 30 01 01 08

07 01 26 17 01 20 16 14 01 16 22 01 01 07

06 01 17 10 01 09 10 09 01 10 16 01 01 06

05 01 11 06 01 03 05 05 01 06 09 01 01 05

04 01 06 03 01 01 03 03 01 03 04 01 01 04

03 01 02 01 01 01 01 02 01 01 01 01 01 03

02 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 02

01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01

Mean 20.3 10.1 10.5 20.6 10.8 10.2 10.4 21.2 10.8 10.9 20.8 20.9

S.D. 5.8 3.7 3.1 5.1 3.4 2.9 3.0 6.1 3.5 3.8 4.6 4.8

Note: These norms are the source of national and state norms printed on ACT score reports

during the 2004–2005 testing year. Sample size: 3,440,889.

Score = 6

Essays within this score range demonstrate effective

skill in responding to the task.

The essay shows a clear understanding of the task.

The essay takes a position on the issue and may offer a

critical context for discussion. The essay addresses com-

plexity by examining different perspectives on the issue,

or by evaluating the implications and/or complications of

the issue, or by fully responding to counterarguments to

the writer’s position. Development of ideas is ample, spe-

cific, and logical. Most ideas are fully elaborated. A clear

focus on the specific issue in the prompt is maintained.

The organization of the essay is clear: the organization

may be somewhat predictable or it may grow from the

writer’s purpose. Ideas are logically sequenced. Most

transitions reflect the writer’s logic and are usually inte-

grated into the essay. The introduction and conclusion

are effective, clear, and well developed. The essay shows

a good command of language. Sentences are varied and

word choice is varied and precise. There are few, if any,

errors to distract the reader.

Score = 5

Essays within this score range demonstrate compe-

tent skill in responding to the task.

The essay shows a clear understanding of the task.

The essay takes a position on the issue and may offer a

broad context for discussion. The essay shows recogni-

tion of complexity by partially evaluating the implications

and/or complications of the issue, or by responding to

counterarguments to the writer’s position. Development of

ideas is specific and logical. Most ideas are elaborated,

with clear movement between general statements and

specific reasons, examples, and details. Focus on the

specific issue in the prompt is maintained. The organiza-

tion of the essay is clear, although it may be predictable.

Ideas are logically sequenced, although simple and obvi-

ous transitions may be used. The introduction and con-

clusion are clear and generally well developed. Language

is competent. Sentences are somewhat varied and word

choice is sometimes varied and precise. There may be a

few errors, but they are rarely distracting.

Score = 4

Essays within this score range demonstrate ade-

quate skill in responding to the task.

The essay shows an understanding of the task. The

essay takes a position on the issue and may offer some

context for discussion. The essay may show some recog-

nition of complexity by providing some response to coun-

terarguments to the writer’s position. Development of

ideas is adequate, with some movement between general

statements and specific reasons, examples, and details.

Focus on the specific issue in the prompt is maintained

throughout most of the essay. The organization of the

essay is apparent but predictable. Some evidence of logi-

cal sequencing of ideas is apparent, although most transi-

tions are simple and obvious. The introduction and

conclusion are clear and somewhat developed. Language

is adequate, with some sentence variety and appropriate

word choice. There may be some distracting errors, but

they do not impede understanding.

Score = 3

Essays within this score range demonstrate some

developing skill in responding to the task.

The essay shows some understanding of the task.

The essay takes a position on the issue but does not offer

a context for discussion. The essay may acknowledge a

counterargument to the writer’s position, but its develop-

ment is brief or unclear. Development of ideas is limited

and may be repetitious, with little, if any, movement

between general statements and specific reasons, exam-

ples, and details. Focus on the general topic is main-

tained, but focus on the specific issue in the prompt may

not be maintained. The organization of the essay is sim-

ple. Ideas are logically grouped within parts of the essay,

but there is little or no evidence of logical sequencing of

ideas. Transitions, if used, are simple and obvious. An

introduction and conclusion are clearly discernible but

underdeveloped. Language shows a basic control. Sen-

tences show a little variety and word choice is appropri-

ate. Errors may be distracting and may occasionally

impede understanding.

Score = 2

Essays within this score range demonstrate inconsis-

tent or weak skill in responding to the task.

The essay shows a weak understanding of the task.

The essay may not take a position on the issue, or the

essay may take a position but fail to convey reasons to

support that position, or the essay may take a position but

fail to maintain a stance. There is little or no recognition of

a counterargument to the writer’s position. The essay is

thinly developed. If examples are given, they are general

and may not be clearly relevant. The essay may include

extensive repetition of the writer’s ideas or of ideas in the

prompt. Focus on the general topic is maintained, but

focus on the specific issue in the prompt may not be

maintained. There is some indication of an organizational

structure, and some logical grouping of ideas within parts

of the essay is apparent. Transitions, if used, are simple

and obvious, and they may be inappropriate or mislead-

ing. An introduction and conclusion are discernible but

minimal. Sentence structure and word choice are usually

simple. Errors may be frequently distracting and may

sometimes impede understanding.

Score = 1

Essays within this score range show little or no skill

in responding to the task.

The essay shows little or no understanding of the

task. If the essay takes a position, it fails to convey rea-

sons to support that position. The essay is minimally

developed. The essay may include excessive repetition of

the writer’s ideas or of ideas in the prompt. Focus on the

general topic is usually maintained, but focus on the spe-

cific issue in the prompt may not be maintained. There is

little or no evidence of an organizational structure or of

the logical grouping of ideas. Transitions are rarely used.

If present, an introduction and conclusion are minimal.

Sentence structure and word choice are simple. Errors

may be frequently distracting and may significantly

impede understanding.

No Score

Blank, Off-Topic, or Illegible

Six-Point Holistic Scoring Rubric for the ACT Writing Test

Papers at each level exhibit

all

most

of the characteristics described at each score point.

Example Essays and Scoring Explanations

Readers for the ACT Writing Test practice by scoring many essays before they score “live” essays.

Although we cannot provide you with the same extensive training these readers receive, reading the

example essays that follow will help you better understand some of the characteristics of essays at

each score point. You will also be able to read a brief explanation of how each essay was scored. The

example essays are in response to the practice prompt given on page 58.

Essay Example (Score = 1):

Well I don’t think they should have a dress code

because, it takes away from the kids. We shouldn’t be

mindless drones. I thought this is America were you

can express yourself. The government should stay out

of it. Next they will be telling us what we should eat

and think. I think if they look good they should be able

to wear what they want to. If they start to control how

we dress. Next, they will control everything. I for one

want to think and dress for myself. If we let them tell

us what to do slowly our freedoms will reduced to

nothing.

Scoring Explanation (Score = 1)

Essays that earn a score of 1 generally demonstrate lit-

tle understanding of the purpose of the writing task, and this

essay is a good example of that. The writer of this essay

takes a position on the issue in the prompt (

I don’t think they

should have a dress code

) and maintains focus on the gen-

eral topic, but does not support his position. Although one

reason is expressed for taking his position (

it takes away

from the kids

), most of the essay seems to be discussing a

different reason for taking that position (

If they start to con-

trol how we dress. Next, they will control everything.

) A lack

of organization—or even of basic groupings of similar

ideas—prevents either idea from being adequately devel-

oped. A few transitions appear, but they do not effectively

link ideas. For the most part, word choice and sentence

structure are very simple and the essay is riddled with dis-

tracting errors.

How to Score the Writing Test

Two trained readers will score each essay on the actual

Writing Test. These readers are trained by reading examples

of papers at each score point and by scoring many practice

papers. They are given detailed feedback on the correctness

of their scores during practice. During actual scoring, score

differences of more than one point will be evaluated by a

third trained reader to resolve discrepancies. This method is

designed to be as objective and impartial as possible. So—

how can you rate your

own

practice Writing Test?

It is difficult to be objective about one’s own work, and

you have not had the extensive training provided to actual

readers of the ACT Writing Test. However, it is to your

advantage to read your own writing critically. Becoming your

own editor helps you grow as a writer and as a reader. So it

makes sense for you to evaluate your own practice essay.

That having been said, it may also make sense for you to

give your practice essay to another reader or two to get oth-

ers’ perspectives: perhaps that of a classmate, a parent, or

an English teacher, for example. Thinking and talking with

others about writing is good preparation for the Writing Test.

To rate your essay, you and your reader(s) should read the

scoring guidelines and examples, which begin below and

continue through page 71, and then assign your practice

essay a score of 1 through 6.

In an actual test, each essay will be scored on a scale

from 1 (low) through 6 (high). The score is based on the

overall impression that is created by all the elements of the

writing. The scores given by the two readers are added

together, yielding the score range 2–12 shown in Table 4 on

page 72.

Scoring Guidelines

(see page 66)

These are the guidelines that should be used to score

your essay. These guidelines are also called a “rubric.” Many

papers do not fit the exact description at each score point.

You should note that the rubric says: “Papers at each level

exhibit

all

most

of the characteristics in the descriptors.”

To score your paper, you should read it and try to determine

which paragraph in the rubric best describes most of the

characteristics of your essay.

Then (because your Writing Test subscore is the sum of

two readers’ ratings of your essay), you should multiply your

1–6 score by 2 when you use Table 4, on page 72, to find

your Combined English/Writing score. Or, if both you and

someone else read and score your practice essay, you could

add those scores together.

Percents At or Below

Norms (cumulative percents) were not yet available for

the Practice Writing Test at the time this booklet was printed.

However, if you register for and take the ACT Plus Writing, a

cumulative percent for your Writing Test scores will be

included on your Student Report and will be available on our

website at www.actstudent.org.

Essay Example (Score = 3):

In my opinion, teenagers should not have to have a

dress code, because it restricts them and takes away a

freedom they should have. I’m not talking about clothes

that are tight or reveal a student’s body, that kind of

clothes should be restricted. But to enforce a code that

tells them they can’t wear kahkies or jeans, T-shirts or

dress shirts, would clearly infringe upon their rights.

One of our rights is the right to express ourselves.

Teenagers wear hats and T-shirts with sayings on them,

and they wear clothes that show what group they

belong to at school or to show they know whats trendy.

If we are restricted in what clothes we can wear, it

is a clear violation of the basic rights America was built

upon. If these rights are removed, who knows where it

could lead next. Will schools start telling students what

music they can listen to or what they have to eat for

lunch?

Dress codes are unfair because some families can’t

afford uniforms or proper clothes. If we had a dress

code, some kids would need a whole new wardrobe—

you would need regular clothes for outside of school,

plus your uniform or better clothes for school. This is

unfair to poorer students.

A dress code is a poor idea because it infringes on

our right of freedom of expression and it can be a

financial burden put upon students. It would be better if

there was no dress code.

Scoring Explanation (Score = 3)

Essays that earn a score of 3 show developing skill in

responding to the task. That is very true of this essay, as it

demonstrates much more awareness of writing choices than

do the essays which are scored lower than a 3.

The writer takes a position on the issue in the prompt

(

teenagers should not have to have a dress code

), gives rea-

soning for that position (

because it restricts them and takes

away a freedom they should have

), and clarifies the terms of

his discussion (

I’m not talking about clothes that are tight or

reveal a student’s body, that’s understandable.

). However,

although the writer recognizes and acknowledges that there

may be circumstances in which a dress code is appropriate,

he offers no context for his discussion and does not clarify

the apparent distinction between a dress code and school

uniforms. There is no recognition of a counterargument.

The writer presents some relevant ideas in the second

and third paragraphs, sequencing the main ideas appropri-

ately. The fourth paragraph offers an additional idea (

Dress

codes are unfair because some families can’t afford uniforms

or proper cloths

) which does not fit the essay’s focus but

which demonstrates the writer is trying to generate support

for his position. Ultimately, all paragraphs contain thoughts

that are underdeveloped and examples that are too general

to adequately support the writer’s claims.

There is a simple organizational structure in this essay.

The organization and sequencing serve to tie ideas together

somewhat but the essay lacks transitions, and the conclu-

sion is underdeveloped and lacks focus as a result of the

new idea introduced in the third paragraph. Ideas are logi-

cally grouped, but there is little evidence of logical sequenc-

ing of ideas throughout the essay.

The essay exhibits a little sentence variety and clear

word choice. Spelling errors and unnecessary shifts of per-

son (

“teenagers” are referred to as “they,” “we,” and “you” in

different parts of the essay

) distract the reader but these

errors do not impede understanding.

Essay Example (Score = 2):

I agree with parents and teachers who say dress

codes is needed. Dress codes sets guidelines for what

students wear and helps the learning environment.

Uniforms encourage equality. They sets guidelines

for what students wear so everyone looks the same.

Uniforms encourage people to be equal by setting what

all students wear at school.

Uniforms helps stop rivalry between groups and

“clicks.” Uniforms put an end to groups at school

because everyone looks the same. If everyone looks the

same than groups won’t divide people by how they look

because uniforms makes everyone equal. All students

would be the same if they wear uniforms.

These is just a few of the many benefits to wearing

a uniform. A dress code is only one way of creating a

good school environment, but it is a good one.

Scoring Explanation (Score = 2)

Essays that earn a score of 2 demonstrate either weak

or inconsistent skill in responding to the task. The writer of

this essay takes a clear position on the issue (

I agree with

parents and teachers who say dress codes is needed

) and

supplies a specific explanation for taking that position (

Dress

codes sets guidelines for what students wear and helps the

learning environment

). However, discussion focuses on an

assumption (dress code = school uniform) that is not

explained or made clear. The writer does not recognize any

counterargument. Development of ideas is minimal and rep-

etitious: the second and third paragraphs repeat the same

idea. There is a skeletal organizational structure in place as

well as a discernible introduction and conclusion, but there

are no transitions. Word choice and sentence structure are

simple. Some errors are distracting.

Essay Example (Score = 4):

I believe that it would be beneficial for our

schools to adopt dress codes. Although some may argue

that this action would restrict the individual student’s

freedom of expression, I do not agree. Our right to

express ourselves is important, but in our society none

of us has unrestricted freedom to do as we like at all

times. We must all learn discipline, respect the feelings

of others, and learn how to operate in the real world to

be successful. Dress codes would not only create a

better learning environment, but would also help

prepare students for their futures.

Perhaps the most important benefit of adopting

dress codes would be creating a better learning

environment. Inappropriate clothing can be distracting

to fellow students who are trying to concentrate. Short

skirts, skimpy tops, and low pants are fine for after

school, but not for the classroom. T- shirts with risky

images or profanity may be offensive to certain groups.

Students should espress themselves through art or

creative writing, not clothing. With fewer distractions,

students can concentrate on getting a good education

which can help them later on.

Another benefit of having a dress code is that it

will prepare students to dress properly for different

places. When you go to a party you do not wear the

same clothes you wear to church. Likewise, when you

dress for work you do not wear the same clothes you

wear at the beach. Many professions even require

uniforms. Having a dress code in high school will help

students adjust to the real world.

Lastly, with all the peer pressure in school, many

students worry about fitting in. If a dress code (or even

uniforms) were required, there would be less emphasis

on how you look, and more emphasis on learning.

In conclusion, there are many important reasons

our schools should adopt dress codes. Getting an

education is hard enough without being distracted by

inappropriate t-shirts or tight pants. Learning to dress

for particular occasions prepares us for the real world.

And teens have enough pressure already without having

to worry about what they are wearing.

Scoring Explanation (Score = 4)

Essays that earn a score of 4 demonstrate adequate

skill in responding to the task. This essay takes a position on

the issue in the prompt (

I believe that it would be beneficial

for our schools to adopt dress codes

) and also acknowl-

edges the counterargument (

Although some may argue that

this action would restrict the individual student’s freedom of

expression

Essays in the 4 score range tend to be fairly consistent

and balanced, if predictable, responses. Most ideas in this

essay are adequately developed, with the fourth paragraph

being the least so. The writer expands on her claims by

developing each paragraph, and by supporting her ideas by

using movement between general ideas (

Inappropriate

clothing can be distracting to fellow students who are trying

to concentrate

) and specific ideas (

Short skirts, skimpy tops,

and low pants are fine for after school, but not for the class-

room

). Focus is maintained on the specific issue of dress

codes in high schools throughout the essay.

The essay is clearly, though predictably, organized. No

credit is earned or lost specifically for using a familiar writing

formula such as this one; in this case the basic structure

worked adequately to help this writer develop her ideas logi-

cally. The introduction and conclusion are clear and some-

what developed, adding to the balance and consistency of

the essay.

The writer demonstrates awareness of good writing

choices through some logical sequencing of ideas and using

clear transitions to link paragraphs. Language control is ade-

quate in this essay, with some sentence variety and appro-

priate word choice. There are few distracting errors.

Essay Example (Score = 5):

Many teachers and parents are now debating

whether or not a dress code should be adopted. They

think that it will improve the learning environment in

our schools, and I agree. I think that if we had a dress

code, it would substantially improve the quality of our

education. First, it would allow students to focus on

academics rather than the social aspect of school.

Second, it would improve the appearance of school, and

third, it will prepare students for the working world.

First, and most importantly, implementing a dress

code will substantially reduce distractions in the

classroom. It is important for our future success to be

able to concentrate on what we are being taught, but it

is difficult to do this when some students are

whispering about what others are wearing, and others

are admiring someone’s Air Jordans. Too many young

people today are more interested in style than

substance. Plus, lots of kids think of school as a social

club instead of a place to get an education.

Secondly, I believe that when students and faculty

are well groomed, it improves the school esthetically. It

is not necessary to dress formally to accomplish this.

Requiring long pants (and an option of skirts for girls)

and a collared shirt would be enough. Not only would

the school and it’s student body look more professional,

I believe it would change the tone of the school. If a

person is required to hold themselves to a certain

standard, they will. Having to dress more maturely can

make students act more maturely as well.

My final reason for supporting a standard of dress

in high school is that it would prepare the youth of

today for the workforce of tomorrow. The vast majority

of jobs require some type of dress code or standard.

Therefore I think that it is important to prepare students

not only academically but also in conduct and

grooming. Someone might have impressive

qualifications, but if they look like a bum off the street,

it is highly doubtful that they would be hired. Letting

students dress anyway they want might actually be

hurting them in the long run.

Even though some teachers and parents think that

establishing a dress code would restrict the individual

student’s freedom of expression, I still think having one

is a good idea. Students aren’t really trying to exercise

their rights when they wear skimpy clothing, they just

want to show off and be trendy. We have to look at

what is most important. When students wear t-shirts

with political slogans that might offend others or dress

in skimpy outfits it can distract other students and

detract from our learning environment. At this time in

our lives the most important thing we have to do is get

a good education so we can succeed in college and later

life.

In conclusion, I am highly in favor of a dress

code. Not only will it improve our learning

environment by keeping classroom distractions to a

minimum, it will also improve the tone of the school

and prepare students to be successful in their future

careers.

Scoring Explanation (Score = 5)

Essays that earn a score of 5 are clearly competent,

and this essay is a good example. This writer has planned

his essay well. The writer presents a clear position on the

issue (

I think that if we had a dress code, it would substan-

tially improve the quality of our education

); provides a con-

text for the discussion (

Many teachers and parents are now

debating whether or not a dress code should be adopted

and supports his ideas (

First, it would allow students to focus

on academics . . . . Second, it would improve the appear-

ance of school, and third, it will prepare students for the

working world

). In addition to supporting his own position, the

writer addresses the complexity of the issue by responding

to a counterargument in the fifth paragraph.

Development of ideas in the essay is specific and logi-

cal: the writer uses specific examples to illustrate each point

(

Air Jordans

and

long pants . . . and a collared shirt

). The

writer also maintains a clear focus on the specific issue of

dress codes in high school throughout the essay.

The essay is clearly organized. There is evidence of a

logical progression of ideas throughout the essay, although

the transitions are predictable. The introduction and conclu-

sion are well developed and successfully focus the essay.

The writer has good language control (

Therefore I think

that it is important to prepare students not only academically

but also in conduct and grooming.

). There are only a few dis-

tracting errors in this writer’s response.

Essay Example (Score = 6):

Parents and educators are increasingly concerned

about the trend toward inappropriate dress in our

schools. They feel that clothing that is too tight or too

revealing may distract students and interfere with

learning. They believe that a dress code should be

adopted which would set guidelines for what students

should wear in the school building. Others feel that a

dress code should not be enacted because it would

restrict individual students’ freedom of expression.

Freedom of expression is important, but when

inappropriate attire begins to interfere with the

educational process, something needs to be done.

Allowing students to wear whatever they want is

clearly not working. Too many teens today seek to

emulate rock stars and pick up fashion tips from MTV.

In a culture that is inundated with sexual inuendo or

worse, it is not surprising that kids show up at school in

suggestive clothing. The educators are right. Short

skirts and spandex tops can be extremely distracting to

a population group driven largely by hormones.

Establishing a dress code could help improve the

learning environment in the school; unfortunately, dress

codes can be extremely arbritrary and difficult to

enforce. What is the solution? I think the answer is

school uniforms. This option would be far easier to

enforce and has several advantages.

From a financial perspective, school uniforms

could help even the playing field between poor and rich

students. We live in a materialistic world and, for

some, it is all about the label. They think that if its not

Tommy, Levi, Gap, etc. that it is not good enough.

Students can be cruel, and make fun of those who do

not dress the same as they do. Wearing jeans with holes

may be one student’s form of expression but another’s

necessity. Mandating uniforms would dispense with

this kind of descrimination. Purchasing a uniform

would be far less expensive than a complete school

wardrobe, and if there were some families that couldn’t

afford it, perhaps the school could provide one for

them, or at least help defray the expense.

Another benefit of school uniforms is that they

could help curb some of the gang-related violence in

our schools. Gangs are associated with certain colors

and members often hassle students who wear an

opposing gang’s color. Sporting the innocent-looking

sweater Aunt Rose gave you for your birthday could be

like waving a red flag in front of an angry bull. With

uniforms, this problem would disappear.

From a personal perspective, I would enjoy the

sheer effortlessness of not having to rummage through

my closet each morning trying to decide what to wear.

Some may enjoy selecting their outfit for the day, but

not me! Having a school uniform would make my

morning routine go much faster, and maybe even leave

a little extra time to finish up yesterday’s homework.

While uniforms in high schools promise many

benefits, we should not expect that they are a cure-all.

Uniforms alone will not raise student grades, confer

equality, or make schools entirely safe for all students.

Uniforms cannot learn math or earn high scores on state

tests. Students must do these things for themselves.

However, I do believe that uniforms in high schools

can go a long way toward helping students succeed by

providing a learning environment that supports

achievement rather than one that is distracting,

descriminating, and dangerous.

So, in conclusion, I strongly support not just a

dress code, which would be difficult to enforce, but a

resolution to adopt school uniforms for our entire

district. Uniforms would not only solve the problems

associated with inappropriate dress and create a better

learning environment, but could also serve to end

inequality, help curb gang violence, and make our

mornings a little less hectic.

Scoring Explanation (Score = 6)

Essays that earn a score of 6 are ample, effective

essays that represent strong responses to the task.

This essay is very strong and effective. It recognizes

and addresses the complexity of the issue by recognizing

several perspectives on the issue (parents and educators

who are concerned about inappropriate dress, others who

are protective of freedom of expression, the financial implica-

tions, the author’s personal perspective), by exploring some

cultural dimensions of the issue (popular culture and gang

violence), and by anticipating and responding to counter-

arguments (

Freedom of expression is important, but when

inappropriate attire begins to interfere with the educational

process, something needs to be done. While uniforms in

high schools promise many benefits, we should not expect

that they are a cure-all.

) Development of most ideas is thor-

ough and logical, and the writer includes specific reasons

and details for each of her arguments.

Organization is clear and ideas are logically sequenced

both within and between paragraphs. Most transitions reflect

the writer’s logic and are integrated into the essay. (Transi-

tions between the first three paragraphs are particularly

effective.) The introduction offers a full context for the issue

and segues into the writer’s statement of position in the sec-

ond paragraph very effectively. The conclusion is clear and

adequately developed as well.

This writer’s language is effective (

Sporting the inno-

cent-looking sweater Aunt Rose gave you for your birthday

could be like waving a red flag in front of an angry bull

) and

shows good command: sentences are varied and word

choice is varied and precise (

Mandating uniforms would dis-

pense with this kind of discrimination

Overall, this is a thoughtful, eloquent and thorough

response. The few errors present to do not distract the

reader.

Complete these steps to calculate your Combined English/

Writing Test score for your practice test.

1. Locate your scale score for the English Test on page 63 and

enter it here: 000000

2. Enter your Writing Test score (1–6) here 000000

and

double

to get your Writing Test subscore (2–12): 00000 (If two

people read and scored your Writing Test, you should add

those two scores to get your Writing Test subscore.)

3. Use the table below to find your Combined English/Writing

score.

• First, circle your ACT English Test score in the left column.

• Second, circle your ACT Writing Test subscore at the top

of the table.

• Finally, follow the English Test row across and the Writing

Test row down until the two meet. Circle the Combined

score where the two columns meet. (For example, if an

English Test score were 19 and a Writing Test subscore

were 6, the Combined English/Writing Test score would

be 18.)

4. Using the number you circled in the table below, write your

Combined English/Writing Test score here: 000000

. (The

highest possible Combined English/Writing score is 36 and

the lowest possible score is 1.)

ACT English Test score _______________

ACT Writing Test subscore _______________

Combined English/Writing Score _______________

(from table below)

TABLE 4

Calculating Your ACT Combined English/Writing Score

Combined English/Writing Scale Scores

English Writing Test Subscore

Test

Score 23456789101112

1 1234567891011

2 2345667891011

3 23456789101112

4 345678910111213

5 4567891011121213

6 5677891011121314

7 56789101112131415

8 678910111213141516

9 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 13 14 15 16

10 8 9 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

11 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

12 910111213141516171819

13 10 11 12 13 14 14 15 16 17 18 19

14 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

15 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

16 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 20 21

17 13 14 15 16 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

18 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

19 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

20 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 21 22 23 24

21 16 17 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

22 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

23 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

24 18 19 20 21 22 23 23 24 25 26 27

25 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

26 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

27 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 28 29

28 21 22 23 24 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

29 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

30 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

31 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 30 31 32

32 24 25 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

33 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

34 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

35 26 27 28 29 30 31 31 32 33 34 35

36 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

You may wish to remove this sample answer document from the booklet to use in a practice test session for the four multiple-choice tests.

Cut Here

PAG E 1

PLEASE DO NOT WRITE IN THIS AREA.

630482

DATE OF

BIRTH

CORRECTION

HIGH

SCHOOL CODE

CORRECTION

DATE OF

BIRTH

ACT PLUS WRITING 2005-2006 National Answer Folder

ALL examinees MUST complete blocks A, B, C and D.

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in blocks B, C, and D EXACTLY as it appears on your admission

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MATCH

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SOCIAL SECURITY

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NAME CORRECTION

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Nov.

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Jan.

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P.O. BOX 168, IOWA CITY, IOWA 52243-0168

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60D

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62E

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65F

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66B

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90Z

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PAG E 2

Print your

3-character

Test Form in

the boxes

above and

fill in the

corresponding

oval at the

right.

A BCDABCDABCD

ABCDABCDABCD

FGHJ FGHJ

ABCDE ABCDE ABCDE ABCDE ABCDE ABCDE

TEST 1

TEST 2

TEST 3

TEST 4

FGH J K FGH J K FGH J K FGH J K FGHJ K FGHJ K

FGHJ FGHJ FGHJ

ABCDABCDABCD

FGHJ FGHJ

FGHJ FGHJ FGHJ

ABCD ABCD

FGHJ

ABCD

FGHJ

ABCD

ABCD ABCD

FGHJ FGHJ FGHJ

ABCDABCDABCD

ABCD ABCD

FGHJ FGHJ

FGHJ

ABCD

BOOKLET NUMBER

Marking Directions: Mark only one oval for

each question. Fill in response completely.

Erase errors cleanly without smudging.

FORM BE SURE TO FILL IN THE CORRECT FORM OVAL.

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and your test center in providing the best possible conditions for

testing and planning for the future. Fill in the oval indicating your

response to each item printed on the back of your test booklet.

Ye s No Yes No Yes No

I hereby agree to the conditions set forth in the ACT registration

booklet or website instructions for this exam, including the

arbitration and dispute remedy provisions. I certify that I am the

person whose name and address appear on this form.

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(Read and sign your name as you would an official document.)

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You may wish to remove these sample answer document pages to respond to the practice ACT Writing Test.

Cut Here

PAG E 4

11A

11B

11C

11D

11E

11F

11G

11H

11J

WRITING TEST FORM

WRITING TEST BOOKLET NUMBER

Print your 6-digit

Booklet Number

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right.

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the boxes above

and fill in the

corresponding

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If you need more space, please continue on the next page.

Begin WRITING TEST here.

IM-171157-001:6543211

11K

11L

11M

11N

11P

11Q

11R

11S

11T

88A

88B

Please enter the

information at the

right before beginning

the Writing Test.

Use a soft lead No. 2

pencil only. Do NOT

use a mechanical

pencil, ink, ballpoint,

or felt-tip pens.

03A

WRITING TEST

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WRITING TEST

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630482

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WRITING TEST

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STOP here with the Writing Test.

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